Last year on our mission trip to Spain we had to go a couple days without a shower (hey, it was the mission field, and we were prepared for this!). We only had sinks in the bathrooms at the farmhouse where we stayed and only cold water spilled from the faucet. The routine each morning was to take water to the stove and warm enough for a basin-full. A sponge bath would do until we would take a trip to one of the missionary’s homes a couple times in the week and take our turns getting a hot shower. How wonderful that shower felt! The sponge bath made me feel only partly clean; after the shower it was wonderful to feel really clean.
I am reminded of that hot shower in my Bible reading this morning. As I read in Leviticus about the cleansing that was necessary for those that were defiled, the truth the Lord brought to my mind was that God loves cleanness. In Mark 7 I read where the Pharisees were upset at the disciples because they saw them eat with unwashed hands. It was their custom never to eat until they had thoroughly washed. Jesus told them that it wasn’t what they ate that would defile them; rather it was the things from within that would defile – things like pride, deceit, an evil eye. These were the things they should guard themselves against. The Pharisees were settling for a sponge bath when what they needed was a “hot shower” for total cleansing. God loves cleanness, but tHe dsires us to be cleansed from the inside. They concerned themselves with the outside and forgot that their motives and attitudes were defiling them.
It’s easy for me to be just like those Pharisees. I can be all cleaned up, doing the right things, looking just like I ought to look, when on the inside my heart is full of pride or impure motives. The Lord is more concerned with who I am than what I do. He wants my heart to be clean more than He wants me to be busy serving my family today with a wrong attitude.
It’s also easy for me as a mom to be more concerned with outside issues (dirty hands) of my daughter than the more weighty issues (what’s going on in her heart). Moms are programmed to train their kids to clean their room, do their school work, be polite, be kind to their siblings – all those outward things. While all those things are good and necessary, we need to remind ourselves not to focus on these issues while the most important needs go unchecked.
- Are they walking with God today?
- Do they desire to hear from him?
- Is their heart turned towards the Lord?
- Is there an attitude that needs to be addressed from God’s Word?
- Is there an area of their life that is bringing defilement from within?
We need the Lord’s wisdom to be able to discern spiritual needs, both our own and our children’s, but if we ask Him, He will reveal those things to us (James 1:5 – If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not).
God loves cleanness, but to be completely clean we need His cleansing from within. If we only focus on the outside we’re settling for a sponge bath instead of a hot shower that really cleanses.
RefreshHer 