“I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word.”
Psalm 119:25
I battle it. You probably do as well. Dust. That fine film of gunk that covers your furniture and nick-knacks. Daily it accumulates. At first you may not notice it but as it builds, eventually you see it — especially when the sun shines on it. I found a God-message in this household chore.
Do you see it as well?
We live in a dusty world. Nothing remains clean for long. It flutters down on everything, coating it in filth. You can use every product in the world– dusters, polishes, sprays, rags. They wipe away the dust, but they do not eliminate it. It keeps coming back.
The only way to keep something from getting dusty is to cover it. If you lift your nick-knack off a bookshelf, you will see what I mean. There will be very little dust where it sat. The wood underneath remained fairly clean. Did the dust only settle on the area where the wood shelf was exposed? No, it settled on the nick-knack, too.
Where the Holy Spirit covers and protects us, we are kept clean. But in those areas of our lives we have not let Him cover us, then the dust of the world filters over us. We can try to keep wiping it off but it will come back, coating our souls in worldliness. The only way to eliminate it is to regularly cloak it with grace and mercy, found in prayer time and in reading the Word.
I must daily confess the areas of my life I have yet to ask God to cover. I can keep trying to handle it on my own, and appear clean on the outside, but I know I am fighting a losing battle. It is only when I give those areas over and ask for protection that I can keep the dust of this world from finely coating me. And, God being the loving Father, will shine His light on those areas, revealing the filth so I can see it better. It may be a negative attitude, a judgmental heart, an unresolved anger, a misconceived thought, a worldly view.
As long as I am in this world, there will be dust. I am surrounded by it. But I can also be covered by the Lord, shielded from its effects. Christ died to cover my sins. But I know that is not a one-time thing because I continually exist on this planet. Each day, when I turn to Him, He keeps me clean. He takes on the dustiness for me. He wipes it away and keeps it from settling on me.
When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Luke 11:24-25
By Julie Cosgrove
Used by Permission
Whatever is going on in your world, there is no greater gift you could give yourself than to receive the One who came to earth for us. He offers you complete forgiveness, a relationship with Him, a more abundant life and eternal life. As long as we trust in ourselves, our own good life, God will remain distant, and we remain separated from him by our sin. He asks us to empty our hands of our efforts and receive him and his gift.
I’d like to give you the opportunity right now to ask him to come into your life. There is no greater offer, nor more important decision you could make in your life. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him….”
I’ll help you put this into words. You could say to him,
“Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins. Right now I open the door and ask you to come into my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me an eternal relationship with you.”
Unlike other possible relationships, if you asked Jesus into your life right now, he promises never to leave you. Jesus said, (speaking of us as his sheep), “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.”
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