Keep Walking

During my prayer time this morning, I could hear the rain falling outside my window and as the sun was coming up I can see how wet the ground was.  There are puddles of water everywhere and in Alabama this leads to mud puddles.  We have this red clay that when wet turns into mud.  This mud will stain your clothes, your shoes, your floors and can be a real pain to get rid of.  Our children love to play in it because they don’t see the damage it causes only the joy it brings them for that moment.  As their parents we end up having to clean them up.  First, we remove the majority of the mud by removing their shoes and clothes but they still aren’t clean.  We then have to give them a bath and wash them from head to toe.  Sometimes you may have to scrub them to remove all remnants of the mud.

I began to think about this mud in a spiritual way.  When we first get saved we are filthy with the sinful mud of the world.  When the Holy Spirit enters our heart it cleans us from the inside out.  It peels away the layers of mud and muck that have built up on us over the years of playing and living a sinful life.  This is part of our transformation.  Those sins that we all know to be sin are easy to see and we willingly give those up but it’s those remnants that are the hardest to get rid of.  When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are washed white as snow but we continue to hang on to the remnants.  If we are not careful these small remnants can turn into big stains in our lives.

As we walk through this world we see the mud all around us and sometimes we try to walk on the edge of that mud puddle and are shocked when we fall in.  The world will sling plenty of mud at us as we walk through this world but we just have to keep walking.  We often get in trouble because instead of just walking on we stop and just stand in the mud.  If you stand in the mud long enough the mud will begin to seep up around your feet and you can become stuck as this mud dries on you.  When you finally break free you leave a trail of muddy footprints of shame, guilt, and regret.

We as God’s children spend a lot of time playing in the mud of the world. The mud of the world can be enjoyable to play in but the entire time you are playin in it, it is sticking to you and staining you from the outside in.  I encourage each of us today to let go of those remnants of sin in our lives.  To allow the Holy Spirit to not only wash us from head to toe but to scrub those areas in our hearts and minds that keep leading us back to that mud.

Thank you and please share!!