I’ve always found it interesting as to how quickly our bodies make a routine a habit. I’ve been getting up a bit earlier the past few days to help out driving one of the vans at work. Today – it’s Sunday. I didn’t have to wake up before 6:00 am, but alas! 5:40 and bam! I’m awake. No matter how hard I tried to go back to sleep – it didn’t work. So, I might as well get up. This led to me doing one of those “jobs” that for some reason, I seem to never have time to do – clean the shower! I find it ironic that the place where I go to “get clean” – needs cleaning! I’ve been saying for weeks – I need to clean that shower, but most mornings, I don’t have time. And no matter what anyone else says, I have to get “in the shower” to clean the shower! Now – I’m so proud! It’s sparkling! I’m so glad that I did it!
This got me to thinking about how some folks deal with the church. They “talk” about how they need to get their life right. They need to go to church, and they plan to start. . . someday. Or maybe they actually do attend services. They may sit in the back corner – but, hey, they are there! They listen and have learned what they need to do to become a Christian, but when they stand for that invitation song – their knuckles turn white they’re holding onto the pew in front of them so hard! “They’ll be baptized one day,” they say, when they have more time. But to truly enjoy the blessings of being a Christian, you have to actually get “into” the church. How? Paul explained, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Yes, that “new life” only comes after we surrender our will for His. There is nothing like the feeling of coming up out of the watery grave of baptism and knowing that your sins have been washed away. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). You’ll be so glad that you did it!
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Simply Blessed, Courtney