Good Thursday morning! The rain has come...and the camper has gone! I'm so alert in the morning; I didn't even notice its absence when I opened the shade almost an hour ago. Maybe it wasn't gone then, I honestly can't remember. A mind is a terrible thing to wake up too early. I think I heard rain every time I woke up last night. Praise the Lord for the rain! Of course this means that I can't crawl around on the grass playing with stone blocks today. Ah well, I'll just have to bear up.
I'll have to admit to some inconsistency over the past few days. On one day an unexpected change in plans might put me into a questioning God mode, and just a couple of days later an unexpected change has me praising Him. The Apostle Paul had learned to be content in all circumstances. It seems that I still have some learning to do. Trusting in God may involve changing plans in a moment or with the breaking of a new day. Change may seem to be a sacrifice, a terrible unfairness, or a blessing, but when God sends a stumble into our stride we know it is for our own good.
The first change of plans caused me a whole lot of work. That is what makes today's change so welcome, I'm still recovering from Tuesday's change. God knew on Monday what would happen on Thursday, so He started changing my stride well before I could see what Thursday morning would bring. Of course I whined and moaned a bit at the change of plans on Tuesday, and now I realize what God was up to. One glorious day in the future, I hope to be able to trust in God right from the start and leave off the moaning and complaining. God is very patient with me, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to show progress to my heavenly Father toward the standard Jesus showed in his life on the Earth.
I cannot save myself with improvement or good works, but I can show the Father that I care enough to work on what I can work on. On the other hand, I also know that Jesus will complete the work he began in me. Much of my attempts at improvement involve polishing the outside of the cup; Jesus works on the inside. Did you ever wonder that Jesus didn't immediately make us all beautiful to look upon at salvation? That witness would of course be unmistakable. Why not put a real polish on the outside of each cup right at the cross? We know that the real stain of sin is on the inside of this little cup. The cleanup work on the inside of us is so important that Jesus spends our lifetimes in getting us cleaned up. Paul admitted that he still had far to go; I'll admit that I still have far to go to meet God's standard, and I'm sure that each of you can look at the inside of the cup and see that all is not perfected yet in your life as well.
Sin will not be present in Heaven. That means that those who believe in Christ must be cleaned up before we can come to the Father. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father except through me" in John 14:6. He also could have said, "I am the Scrubber, the Soap, and the Bath; no man comes to the Father until I have cleaned him completely." In our efforts at self-improvement, we play with the bubbles and move the suds around a bit, but the real work is done by Christ himself. Perhaps Jesus gave us imperfect outsides to worry about so that we would stay out of the way while He cleans up the inside. Just a thought to consider while I play with my bubbles in the bath and move the suds around a bit.
Have a glorious new day in Christ!
Bucky
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