A Good Cleaning

 I have been writing about who we come into bondage and get trapped in strongholds. Today, I want to look at something else. This will be a much shorter read and is just something for you to ponder and pray about.

When I know that I have really messed up, I have done something that is so wrong that there is no explanation, I tend to hide. That is the normal response. Shame will always first drive us away from the places that real help and freedom is. We become like Adam and Eve. We know. We are naked and we run to hide and cover ourselves. The reality is that our sin is shameful. Our heavenly Father would be fully justified in piling it on for some of our behavior. He is holy and we fall far short of His standard of righteousness. Most of the time, our sin is even a conscious choice or a practiced habit that we fall into easily. We deserve to be called out and shamed in front of everyone. For most of us, it is that knowledge and fear that hold us in bondage.

Today I began the yearly task of cleaning the dirt and mildew off the vinyl siding. Is is a huge undertaking, especially when I decide that the scrub brush and bucket do a better job than the power washer. It takes a lot of time and effort to scrub all the dirt and green growth away. I began just like I always do. I got my bucket out and filled it with soapy water and got out my extra stiff long handled scrub brush. The hard nylon bristles seemed to skim right over the dirt and mildew stains without taking much of anything off. After about a 10x15’ section, I was ready to quit. It seemed like I was not accomplishing anything but making the ground wet and having a streaked, dirty wall instead of a splotchy green and tan one.

I decided to get the soft scrub brush out of the garage. It has an even longer handle but very soft bristles. As I started scrubbing with the soft brush, I realized that everything was coming off much quicker and with less scrubbing. The softness of the brush allowed it to get into the cracks and grooves in the siding and the dirt and the green growth came right off. I hosed it after a brief scrub and it was clean. As I was celebrating this turn of events, the painfully slow job becoming faster and easier with the right tool for the job, the Lord said to me that is how I am.

When we see a problem, we tend to want to tackle it with everything we have. I was going to scrub that siding clean, even if it meant there would be holes where the dirt had been. That may seem like giving it our all, but in reality it just makes a mess and leaves a destructive trail. Jesus is like the soft scrub brush. He knows where the dirt is hiding and he starts removing it with a soft, fine brush. He does not try to take our skin off to get us clean. He gently uses just enough force and pressure to do the job without harming us in the process. He comes to us in our shame and brokenness. He wraps His arms around us tight just enough pressure to expose the dirt and the wounds and He gently begins to clean it away.

It took a lot of effort and force on His part to be able to clean us up, but He took the physical pain that our cleaning process required upon Himself. He stood between us and our sin. He suffered the blows that were required to make us whole and deliver us from our self imposed prison of shame. Jesus in great love and kindness made us clean. he didn’t let us feel the stiff scrub brush of the cleansing process. he came to us and cleaned us. The stiff brush was reserved for His skin. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him. He carried our sorrows and endured our shame. We get to sit back and look at clean, healthy skin without the marks of the scrubbing we needed. Jesus has paid it all.

I tell you this because we all need to know that Jesus is not looking for our penance. He does not desire that we would suffer for our sins and failures. His goal is not our humiliation, but our liberation from sin and He has already done the hard work. We receive His  freedom and goodness by faith. We receive it b surrendering to His love and then He comes in with the soft scrub brush and cleans all the nooks and crannies, the crevices where we buried our hidden sins. He thoroughly cleans it and makes us new.

We are covered in the world’s filth. We have even participated in getting ourselves that way. Jesus is nt looking to assign blame. He is looking to bring freedom and transformation. he is coming for you and me and He has the soft scrub brush to clean us, He uses the gentlest means needed for the job. He used the violence of His death at the cross to defeat the enemy, but now He is using the s light pressure of His leading if we will just submit to Him.If not, He has a stiff brush and we deserve to feel the pain of His cleansing, but He is asking us to agree with Him today that we need a good and thorough cleansing and He will do it.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and lowly in heart.