Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Seek justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.

It’s that time of the year again.  Time for spring cleaning.  My mom is a neat freak and she is the exact opposite of a hoarder.  She throws everything away.  Her spring cleaning always involved a lot of garbage bags.  If you left something laying around, it was gone.  My own personal policy with clothes and other items is that if I go an entire year without wearing or using something then I must not really need it and it can be discarded.

Sin is something that we sometimes hoard and hang on to because we just can’t figure out how to let it go.  Sometimes we find ourselves in some type of sin that benefits us financially and we are afraid that we won’t be able to pay our bills if we let it go.  Sometimes we think that we can’t survive emotionally if we let go of this sin.  But let me tell you something, God will reward you and God will take care of your every need when you simply trust Him.

Years ago my husband and I were not yet married and living together.  I tried to justify it with God by saying that it was necessary financially.  I just couldn’t make it and pay all my household bills living on my own.  I loved my then boyfriend, but I didn’t want to make yet another mistake with a marriage that wouldn’t work.  I tried to cut deals with God in hopes that He would just overlook this whole adultery thing that I had going on.  By the way, just so you know, adultery isn’t just when a married person cheats on their spouse, it also encompasses any sexual relations between people who are not married. So I am literally violating one of the ten commandments and thinking that God will just give me a get out of hell free card.  Well, it doesn’t work that way.  So, of course God didn’t honor our living arrangement.  When God doesn’t honor something, it will never bring us joy.  Simply put, if God ain’t happy, you won’t be either.

So I whined and prayed and tried to justify what I was doing and tried to convince God that I loved Him and that I could love Him completely and still hang onto my sin, but God wasn’t having any of it.  Our relationship was getting more and more miserable.  We had all kinds of problems cropping up.  So finally one Sunday morning when I had skipped church because I just needed some “me” time.  I cried out to God.  I asked him what the problem was, I was going to church and praying and reading my Bible.  Why was I so miserable?  God didn’t beat around the bush, He immediately pointed out my sin and told me that I had to give it up.  I was resisting and rebelling and now I was feeling the prick of the sword that would devour me.I asked Him to show me the way.

Now, let me warn you that when you have rebelled and resisted for quite some time and you refuse to give up sin and then you finally ask God to help you get out of it.  He’s gonna do it, but you might not like how He does it.  So all I can say is buckle up and be ready for the ride.  God totally destroyed our relationship within a matter of hours.  It was like a house infested with black mold.  It had to be levelled completely, I guess God saw no way to clean it up otherwise.

The next day, I had a relative ask to move in with me and pay rent.  Also my husband found a less expensive place nearby that would allow him to still help me with my bills at the house.  God took care of our financial issues, imagine that.

But the miraculous thing is this.  Once both of us were away from each other, in total desperation, we turned to God.  Amazing how that works, isn’t it.  Once we turned to God and put Him first, He brought us back together and we started all over.  My husband got saved and was baptized and I re-dedicated my life  to Christ.  Its the whole Matthew 6:33 thing, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  You see, once we put God first, he put everything together for us.

I encourage you to put God first in your life.  Let go of the sin in your life.  Do some spring cleaning, look at areas that may be displeasing to God and sweep those out of your life.  He will help you and He will wash you white as snow.

So, let’s see, you can be cleansed of your sin and washed white as snow and feast on the good things or you can continue to rebel and resist and be devoured by the sword.  It’s a no brainer, right?

Have a great day!