Soak, Scrub, Rinse, and Repeat

COME:
Titus 2:15
15 These things speak , and exhort , and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.


Titus 3:4-6
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared , 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through JesusChrist our Saviour;


Zechariah 4:6
6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying , This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel,saying , Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

HEAR:
We are not made new by our works or trying harder. We will only come up against a wall each time we try a little harder. Our righteousness couldn't save us and it won't keep us holy either. We are saved by Mercy and Grace. We must learn not only to NOT let others despise us, we must learn not to despise ourselves. When we sin, fail, miss the mark, or otherwise fail to live up to this image we have on the inside of our perfect self that we are striving to attain to be in God... We must not allow ourselves to despise who we are now because it fails to live up to who we want to be. This causes a cycle which then has us thinking, imagining, and saying that we always fail and never succeed. This then causes us to sow and then reap the one we do not want to be. It is not by our might or power that we live for God but by God's Holy Spirit.

Nothing we "DO" no "Plan of action" will make us any holier or better people than we already are. Only allowing the Holy Spirit to saturate us through his Word and Presence will wash us and regenerate us. This process takes time, like something that has been dirty for a long time, soaking in cleaning solution, being scrubbed and then soaking some more. Our spirit is regenerated but the Soul and Body need renewing until that day we are re-created with new bodies. My wife found these sea shells that were all crusty with lake residue as all sea shells are. She soaked them in bleach to make sure they were clean. In the end not only did the surface scum come off but also the extra hard parts started to come off with a little scrubbing revealing the clean, soft, pearly white inside. It was beautiful. They more she soaked, scubed, rinsed, and repeated this the more amazingness was revealed. We must learn not to work harder or try harder but to simply soak, scrub, rinse, and repeat daily if we want to be conformed to the Image of Jesus. 

DO:
Each day, I must come to the Word and Prayer. Not to try to learn something new or get some grand revelation trying to get a little bit more knowledge that will put me over or get an A on the test... but to SOAK in the presence of God through active dialogue in prayer and SCRUB with the word of God in the mind. RINSE through praise and worship. REPEAT daily!


My Prayer:
Father, I thank you for this amazing morning. The rain outside washing away the heat of the summer. The time off to work on other things and meditate in your Word. The new vision and life you've put into me. I want to always remember and understand that all I need to DO is to SOAK, SCRUB, RINSE, and REPEAT... Thank you!


Darrell G. Wolfe