Are Your Glasses Crystal Clear?

We moved into our home (a.k.a. The Parsonage) and QUICKLY discovered we had hard water. It was unbelievable! I washed the dishes in our dishwasher 3 times and my glasses were suddenly WHITE! My plastic bowls, my Tupperware, my kids cups, even my SILVERWARE took on a dingy white color. I had NEVER seen anything like it!

I researched online different ways that you could fight the hard water and I ended up using vinegar as a rinse agent - it helped but it was still a major problem! Then I tried finding citric acid - the only thing I found was "Fresh Fruit." That helped even more but you still couldn't really SEE through my glasses. Then I finally found pure Citric Acid and that helped even better. One day I was shopping and I found a product called "Lemi-Shine." I decided to try it because my dishes were still not perfection. That was the best! It worked pretty well! I was satisfied. I thought.

Then our clothes started having problems. My husband put on a new white shirt dress shirt on top of his white T-shirts and I was shocked. His white T-shirt was UNSIGHTLY! I decided enough was enough and I called the water softener people. I compared prices and got 2 dealers fighting over me - it was GREAT! But that's another story. Within a few days I had soft water.

Once again I was SHOCKED! The dishes that I was happy and content about - they were SPARKLING! I had NO IDEA they could be that clean! It's been about a week and I'm STILL picking up my glasses and looking at them up in the light! This morning I was doing this and all of a sudden I heard a still small voice telling me "you could be cleaner too." Just like that and it was gone. I started thinking. My glasses were all dirty and cloudy but I was satisfied with them. I thought they were good enough. But if you were to compare the before and after pictures of my glasses, I would not have been satisfied and I was shocked that I WAS satisfied with the state of my dishes.

The condition of my spiritual life is exactly the same! Job 13:23a says:

"How many are my iniquities and my sins?"

How much dirtiness do we see in ourselves? Do we see all of it? Not at all! Because of the sin nature, sin is ALWAYS there! We will never be free of it until we are in heaven. God reveals sin in our lives when He decides that its time to clean that up! The rest of Job 13:23 says this:

"Make me know my transgression and my sin."

When God brings up that little "issue" to our attention, He wants us to fix it! He wants us to understand our sin and how dirty it makes us to Him. Until we see the righteousness and holiness of God and compare it to ourselves, we will not know the extent of our filth. 

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart!Try me and know my thoughts!

 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!

In my own life, when God reveals the sin I have in my heart - I become sad but then relieved. Suddenly, I know my problem and I can seek God to give me the help that I need. That may seem strange that I am glad my sin is confronting me but its true! I can only conquer my sin if I have the help from God and I know that He will give me the endurance to fight the fight for a cleaner, more sanctified me.