I’d like to share this message as if I’m speaking to a group of my sisters in Christ sitting in my family room with our Bibles and a cup of coffee or tea sharing our lives in the LORD. If you were here right now you would see that my laundry room has three detergents. One is Arm & Hammer with baking soda (love that!) which I’m currently using. The other two I purchased on sale. Xtra and Purex, also good products.
Now, you may ask, Lisa, why in the world do you have three different laundry detergents? Well, did you catch me say one of them I love and two of them I purchased on sale? Ladies, if you’re like me you have preferences of purchase but often your pocketbook dictates the need to purchase on sale–on a bargain. Make sense?
Stay with me now…
While there are certain products I absolutely don’t mind buying the cheaper one (if the product is still good like my laundry detergent), there are certain things that I won’t compromise in my purchase. An example would be the products I ship to my adult daughter for my grand girls. They both have eczema like their mommy did when she was a child. They have to be careful about everything they use on their skin. Prices are high for their products so we assist our daughter with these kinds of purchases.
Let’s return to the Laundry Room, keeping in mind that some things we just can’t compromise on…
While I will buy products that are cheaper to wash our clothes because we don’t have sensitive skin, I will note to you that some detergents are just plum better than others for washing the clothes, making the colors vibrant again and getting the stains out!
Now, let’s look at this with a spiritual eye rather than a natural one…
Our hearts are stained. No doubt about that. We all have areas of struggle in our thoughts, the motivations of our hearts, the words we speak, the way we view and treat others at times and in our behaviors. You would agree with me, right?
Often we find ourselves searching for the best product at the right price! We want what is seemingly going to remove the stains in our lives but without the high price so we may compromise. Are you with me?
We look for Christian books by what is known as the “well-known authors” with the hopes that something she or he has written will get the stains out. Some people turn to self-help books and seminars with the hopes that something they hear will remove the stains in their lives. There are some who run from one conference to another just looking, searching, hoping for the best product at the right price! Often, they come away from those things with nuggets they can use but the stains and pains in life are still there.
What I have found is that there is really only ONE best product at the right price for my life! Not to suggest that a good Christian book or Christian conference is not helpful, but there is nothing like humbling myself before GOD, grabbing my BIBLE, sitting down with HIM in prayer — asking Him to show me myself fully — examining myself in His Word and seeing myself through the work done by our Lord at the cross for you and for me.
I can barely write this for crying because while we spend so much time searching for the best product at the right price we already have HIM. It is not my intention to sound as if I’m minimizing His importance with this analogy by any means — I want you to see this clearly that we already have the BEST– the best product is the WORD and the right price has already been paid for us — the precious shedding of the blood of Jesus!
To get the stains out of my life I have to continually, day after day, be submerged fully in His Word. I ask that the blood of Jesus would wash me, cleanse me, consecrate and change me fully. I don’t mind being stained if I’m stained with His precious blood. I’m humbled by His love and gift of life. How about you? The high price has already been paid for you and for me.
I was going to leave a prayer for you but I believe Jesus prayed it best for us:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. -John 17:20-23 (NIV)
Look at how much we are loved by the LORD who shed His blood that we would be reconciled to the Father and be one in Him with one another. How can we not run to Him before anything or anyone else? Amen?! Amen! I pray you leave here encouraged today in the LORD. He loves you!
Lovingly in Christ,
