Step back from what you wrote about being cleansed or being
the one to initiate a cleansing in your family, workplace or congregation.
Look between the lines of your story and ask yourself:
What did God reveal to me about God?
What did God reveal to me about myself? about others?
How do the lessons guide and perhaps inspire me now?
Go deeper if you
wish: How do you respond to
criticism? Sometimes it is easier to
tolerate criticism from somebody we don’t like than it is to accept criticism
from somebody we love. As you pray about
areas where you have been challenged by criticism, does it reveal anything that
Jesus might be trying to drive from your “temple”? (ie, your body, your household or your
congregation)
When I am being cleansed the message that is constantly conveyed to me by our precious Savior is that I am loved and I will never, ever be alone. That others cannot fill the hole in my heart but Christ Jesus will and does continually, faithfully, even without my knowing. It is always a profound moment even though the message is consistent.
ReplyDeleteThink of how many times each week you wash your body, your face or your hands. If you didn't do that, it wouldn't be long before you would become cruddy (at best) or ill (worst case scenario. And yet, you can't live a full life without your body becoming soiled by dirt, sweat or other substances like food, paint, glue -- whatever. So we wash our flesh as a result of living. In the same way, as we live as humans walking through time and space, we get cruddy and sometimes sin-sick. Thanks God, we are cleansed constantly, again and again, in ways that we know we need and in ways beyond our understanding. That's what Christ offers -- clean, fresh, revitalized life every day.
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