Friday, February 4, 2022

The Unseen

 

Friday, February 4, 2022

You blind Pharisee!  First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.  Matthew 23:26

The Pharisees were religious leaders in Israel.  It was important to them to look like leaders who lived what they said.  Jesus got to the crux of the matter when he challenged one of them to be as clean on the inside as the outside advertised.  That’s a lot easier-said-than-done, eh?

My dear bride, Elizabeth, was sometimes called The White Tornado by our three children.  Elizabeth knows how to “clean with a vengeance.”  It was often stated that Mom could spot a dust bunny under a rug or sofa at midnight, with the lights turned-off, from three rooms away.  Now, if there are, as my friend, Dr. Don McCutcheon used to say, two kinds of people in the world…cleanies and messies, there isn’t a shadow of a doubt on which side Elizabeth comes down!  However perceived by our then-teenaged children, Elizabeth’s motive was always more than just keeping spotless for the sake of pride; she knew the unseen enemies couldn’t be cleansed away by hitting a-lick-and-a-promise with a dust rag.  Deep cleaning meant a healthier house for those she loved!

In “Praying the Promises of God” English author Alan Redpath wrote about the difficulty of having the inner person as deeply-cleaned as you try to present the outer person to those around you:

Do certain behaviors and habits continue to plague you, no matter how often you try to stop them and resolve to do better?  This happens to all of us.  When we belong to Christ, we long for holiness in our outward behaviors because we have an inner barometer that is weighted toward righteousness.  Sin unbalances us and makes us feel “off.”  Each of the behaviors we so want to change is the fruit produced by unrighteousness on the inside.  If the inner root were gone, the fruit of it would be gone as well.  When we put all the emphasis on an outward behavior and don’t think about the root of that behavior, we find ourselves chasing our own tails and repeating the same behaviors over and over again.  Then we fall prey to the enemy’s attempts to discourage us.  Or, like the religious leaders to whom Jesus addressed these words, we compensate with outward forms and traditions and find satisfaction in the mere appearance of holiness.  Because Jesus comes to reside in us, he has the power and access to work on our sins at their root.  From within he cleanses and purifies us—making the inside of the cup and dish clean.  The more we surrender to him in obedience and look to him for guidance and strength, the more we will find old behaviors and thought patterns disappearing and being replaced with healthy expressions of the Christ who indwells us.[1]

For You Today

The adage, what you can’t see can’t hurt you is miles from reality.  Our house’s foundation is cracked, due to soil erosion underneath, where only the moles and worms live.  But the evidence is there, and needed to be addressed.  The crew dug deep….down to bedrock…and now the foundation stands firm. 

The same can be applied to the inside of your soul.  And the only “crew” that can get there is the one who walked out of an empty tomb on Easter morning.  When He hears your confession, deep cleaning for the unseen will take on a new meaning!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   


[1] Alan Redpath(1907–1989), English evangelist, pastor, and author in Praying the Promises of God (Tyndale House publishers, Carol Stream Ill)

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