God Power Washed My Heart.

My WH (wonderful husband) got a great deal for a power washer from a friend at work. He brought it home and tried it out on our front walkway. I had not noticed how dirty it was because it happened gradually, it covered all of it and it was just part of my surroundings. I didn’t realize until WH power washed only one part of the walkway.
That cold, rocky concrete was a perfect example of my life on display. If you have read much of my blog, or listened to my testimony, you know some of the major obstacles I have dealt with. Some of those were due to my own decisions and some were due to others, but all of it left a mark. The guilt and pain and failures added layer upon layer of dirt and filth to my heart but in many ways I ignored it and in some cases didn’t even realize it. Many times lies and hurts, mistakes, and disobedience can sneak into the cracks and crevices of our hearts and we don’t even realize the squalor we are living in, or not living, but only existing.

But God…

God wants to clean that up. He wants to not only forgive us but also give us the ability to forgive ourselves. Yes, sometimes even now, I can slip down into the dirt of what was before, but the Bible says in Hebrews 10: 22-23 to

“Let us draw near to God with sincere heart in FULL ASSURANCE of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies WASHED with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”

See, proof, God power washed my heart.

God has such a great sense of humor because while standing on our porch looking at how nice that one part of the path to our front door was I was blown away by an ah-ha moment. That small part of the walkway showed, in sharp contrast, how dirty the rest of the sidewalk had gotten.  I had no idea how filthy it was until I saw how nice it could be, and what a difference getting rid of the dirt made.

What about your dirt?  How does your past impact you today? How does it impact your future? When you ask God into your heart and you repent of your sin, He washes all that away. 

There are still days that I feel like He truly needs a power washer with a brutal spray to dislodge some of the things I keep picking back up and carrying around, but beloved, He's already wiped it away!  I am the one who choses to go back to it, I am the one that choses to dwell on the mistakes in the past.  He no longer sees it.  It is gone and He doesn't want me to keep returning to what was before.  He wants me to concentrate on Him, just Him and His perfect will for my life.  Isaiah 43:25 says,

"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." 

If the God of the Universe loves me enough to forget all my sins so that He and I can have a relationship, let me repeat that, THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE... then shouldn't I love Him enough to accept it and not try to limit Him?  He can do it and to believe otherwise is limiting God. God’s power is without limit; it is only us who limits God. There is NOTHING that can separate us from Gods love, except our refusal to accept it.

My life was very much like that sidewalk until I asked God to wash all the dirt and garbage away. There is a constant reminder when I leave my home of who I was before and who I am now. I don’t know if I want WH to power wash the whole thing yet.