PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• People often tell me that I’m an organized person. And what they mean by that is that I’m capable of handling a lot of details at the same time. But “organized” and “my house” are not one and the same right now. If anyone walked into my home right now, I’d be mortified because any notions of my organizational skills would very quickly be squashed.
We’re friends, so I’ll just be real with you.
In my bedroom, I still have an unpacked suitcase from my trip to Cincinnati a week ago. My guest room is turned upside down as I’ve been washing the bed linens from our friend’s stay here while we were out of town. Clean sheets are wrinkling in a wadded up pile on the mattress while the blanket is in my dryer and the bedspread is precariously balanced on a chair. In my office, I have VistaPrint boxes as well as stacks of handouts from FedEx Office that are leftover from a Bible study I led, a leadership program I facilitated, and the shopping trip I led yesterday. My living room is a hodgepodge of event set up stuff and goody bags, as well as a new desk that needs to be assembled. My purchases from shopping yesterday are piled on the couch. My dishwasher needs to be unloaded and reloaded (translation, the kitchen sink is full). My laundry is piled up on the closet floor because I needed both my laundry baskets to carry goody bags for the shopping trip I organized. The laundry baskets and remnants from the trip are downstairs in my husband’s band room. And I think I’ve randomly left three or four coffee cups in various places of the house.
If you heard a loud groan just now, that was my husband who is in Cincinnati visiting his dad, and just read all this.
My point in telling you all this is to remind you that no matter how good an impression we may make on the world, behind the closed doors of our hearts, we’re all just a hot mess.
As hard as we may try to keep people from seeing our mess, the One we can never hide from is God. Hebrews 4:13 says, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (ESV).
Many are terrified by that. They think they need to take care of their mess before they go to God. But that’s backward. God cleans up the mess we can never address.
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (ESV). He cleanses us! All that scrubbing and polishing of our souls happens by Him alone! We don’t have the right tools for the job, because only by the blood of Jesus that we can become clean.
So take a deep breath of relief, my fellow-hot-messes! We don’t have to clean all this up. We go to God, admit our mess, and then He handles the transformation, remodeling, and all the cleanup.
Today, as you pray, thank God for His willingness to take on our messes. Thank Him that He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but only wants to cover us with His perfect love and salvation. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to stop trying to do it on your own, and let God clean you from the very core of your heart and soul.
