Chris Bailey III - Clean To Clarity

EZEKIEL 36:25 KJV - 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Rainy Mondays can be rough.  Well, I guess any rainy day can be rough - especially if you have to drive in it!  Slow down, lights on, wipers up.  The sound of the back and forth of the blades can be enough to make you whisper a prayer for sunshine.  And true to form, the God Who sent the rain is the same one Who sends the sunshine.  We need them both and He sends them both.  In order and on time because it's in His time!  But you know one of the blessings of the rain is the free car wash.  Depending on where you live that might be a car wash, a mud wash, or even snow slush wash.  But after the rain and thanks to your windshield wipers, for nearly all of us, the rain is a clear wash for our windshield.

In the midst of the anxiety or stress of the rain, and the monotony of the wiper blades, the windshield almost always comes out better after the storm than before.  No matter how fast or slow you drive, or what kind of car you drive, if it rains hard enough that windshield comes out looking new because it comes out clear.  The dirt, the bugs, and the bird turds - all gone.  You know our hearts can get like that over time.  The dirt of sin, the bugs of burdens, and the bird droppings of life can build up, but we get used to seeing around them rather than getting rid of them.  Bitter dispositions, negative thoughts, and high blood pressure are often just symptoms of dirty mental and spiritual windshields that need more than a stray wishful wipe away, but a good rain.

Our Heavenly Father promised in Ezekiel 36 to wash us clean - from all our filthiness.  And one of the benefits of being clean is clarity.  Like looking through that clear windshield, we start to see things for what they really are and for what they are not.  This clarity takes away the need to squint and we no longer have to stress like the blind guides of MATTHEW 23:24 "which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel."  It's not so much that life changes, but our perception certainly does.  Nothing on the other side of the windshield really changes, but the clarity to see it does; and that can be life changing.  Seeing God for Who He truly is and sin for what it is (and isn't).

Yet another benefit of being clean...clarity.  Let God do the wiping while we do the walking.  Let the love of God by the blood of Jesus, wash you and make you clean!  To find it, believe it and receive it...

Job 11:13-14 KJV - 13 If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward Him; 14 If iniquity [be] in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.

Isaiah 55:6-7 KJV - 6 Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon Him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

1 John 1:7 KJV - 7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

- Chris Bailey III