My hometown was recently hit by torrential rain, which caused massive flooding across the city and county. The maintenance workers for the city did everything they could to hold back the floodwaters. They put sand bags around buildings, closed the movable dikes and built temporary dikes to hold back the floodwaters. Unfortunately, even with all the maintenance workers efforts, our city and county experienced flooding in many areas, damaging homes as well as crops.
Dirt dumped
along a road to make a temporary dike.
One of the places that
flooded was one of the golf courses that my husband manages. The morning the water began to rise, my
husband received a phone call warning him of the impending flood. He immediately went to the golf course and,
along with some of his workers, began to move the electric golf carts to higher ground
to keep them out of the floodwaters. As
the water rose, we prayed. As we prayed,
we saw God grant us mercy. The water did
not cover the cart batteries, thus they were undamaged, and the floodwaters
stopped less than 6 inches from going into the clubhouse door where our
merchandise was.
Looking down
the road to the entrance of the Clubhouse.
Directly behind
the fence line you can see the door to the clubhouse.
As the floodwaters
receded, we could see and smell that the golf course was a BIG mess. There was mud everywhere, river mud that
contained all kinds of smells and dead fish.
Not only was there mud everywhere, but the floodwaters had killed the
grass on the golf course. Everything the
mud had touched was a BIG mess.
Mud covers
the bushes and fence along the golf course.
Dead grass
covered with mud on the golf course.
The
mud needs to be removed before new grass can grow.
As my husband and I
watched the floodwaters recede and the maintenance workers begin the process of
cleaning up and removing the mud, I began to think about how sin in my life can
be as damaging as the flood and can make me a BIG mess. I thought that, just like the mud needs to be
removed from the grass so that new grass can grow, sin needs to be cleaned up
and removed from my life so that my faith and relationship with God can grow.
Our city is
making a BIG effort and is bringing in
their BIG equipment to clean up the mud
from the flood.
Like the maintenance
workers who dumped the dirt along the river to fight the floodwaters, I can
fight the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin in my life. Or, I can be like my husband, who listened to
the warning and took action. I can
listen to the Holy Spirit’s warning about sin in my life and take action to
remove it. As my city used their BIG
equipment to clean up the mud, I can use the BIG equipment that God has given
me to clean up sin in my life; confession of sin, acceptance of God’s
forgiveness, the Bible and prayer
And, like my city who
will move past the damage of this flood and be clean, I also can move past the
damage that sin brings to my life and be clean, living a holy and
righteous life, so that God can be glorified through me.
Confessing
and saying no to sin,
results in a guilt free life
that is filled with
peace and joy.
“If we confess our sins, God is
faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and
purify
us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9
Encouraging You today to
enjoy the guilt-free life that
God has designed for you to live.
