Thursday, January 3, 2008

Muddy puddles...

I have found a really great devotional that I have been getting emailed to me everyday, through crosswalk.com.

Today was talking about how we are lavished with grace through Jesus Christ. The writer talked about when we stepped in a mud puddle our feet got muddy. We didn’t become mud, we just needed a good foot washing. It was a really good analogy for our lives as Christians. Once we accept God’s gift of salvation, we are covered by the blood of Jesus, the old has gone, the new has come. We stumble and fall each day, and get a little muddy with sin, but by going to Christ and asking for forgiveness, He kneels down and washes off the mud. He covers us with grace and gives us the strength to get back up and keep going.

So many times I find myself wallowing around in the mud. I fall and get dirty, and though God is right there holding out His hands with a clean dry towel, I blame myself, beat myself up and stay in the mud. And sometimes even when I get up and out of the mud, instead of allowing Him to clean me, I find myself trying to do it on my own. I just make so much more of a mess of it. Why do I fail to see the incredible love and grace He wants to lavish on me? Why do I fail to see that He has dressed me in clean clothes, dressed me and poured out riches upon me? Maybe some of those answers are found in some of the pain in my past, the unforgiveness in my heart towards others… the pain in my heart that sometimes seems so all consuming, that even when I invite God in to heal it, and beg Him to, when He does, it just seems to hurt more.

So all I see is the pain, and the mud of this life, and forget to look up into the sky, into my Father’s eyes, and see the beauty, joy, and abundance that awaits me in heaven, and that I can taste here on earth.
Romans 8:1 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!"

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