In my best dress, walking out to the truck last Sunday morning, I opened the door, and immediately regretted my decision to trade vehicles with the hubs for the day.
The truck was FILTHY! Covered in dirt, full of empty pop bottles and snack wrappers, and to top it all off, it contained a stench equivalent to a week old rotten bag of garbage.
Why? How? When? Whaaaaa?? I was completely caught off guard!
All I could ask myself was, “How in the world does someone drive this vehicle around and not be troubled by the condition that it is in?” That’s when it hit me! Was this the condition in which my walk with Christ was in? Messy and most certainly lacking attention? Had I lost sight of my first love?Wow—talk abut an abrupt eye-opener!
As I continued driving on my way to church, The Lord began to reveal how our lives can very well be in a similar state that my husband’s truck was in if we don’t guard our hearts and walk continuously in His will! We can quickly be covered in the filth of this world, carrying around trash (unrepented sin), and leaving behind a terrible odor everywhere we go without even realizing it.
Can I just insert a little disclaimer here? My husband has a brand new beautiful truck. Most of the time it’s in prestige condition. However, this day it wasn’t. So, from the outside it appeared to be very well put together while what the inside embodied was far from it. Is this not how many of us appear from the outside as well? As a result of masking the interior garbage, (hurt, pain, bitterness, sin, etc), we appear to have it all together from the outside! Especially, in this day and age where Social Media has made this easy to do! Let me share a little piece of wisdom with you. God isn’t deceived by the front that is used to cover the dirty details. He very much knows every part of our whole being {But this is a complete different blog for another time}! ;)
Ok, back to where I was going with this—
It happens so fast you know? One day your car is brand new, and it seems in a blink of an eye your cleaning out month-old french fries from every crack and crevice, gathering enough dirty clothes for a whole load of laundry, and finding sippy cups full of rotten milk in compartments you didn’t even know existed. Can you relate sweet sister?
Unlike the truck, I want my relationship and walk with Christ to be like the condition of a brand new car! Nothing hidden— clean, pure, and full-functioning! And besides, who doesn’t love the “new car” smell? I can almost imagine it now as I’m writing.
Friend, I don’t want others to look at me in the way that I looked at this truck last Sunday morning! I didn’t even want to get in it due to the fear that the filth might rub off on me. The same could be said about us if we aren’t careful! Are we a soul in which others crave to be around? Or, are we one in which others avoid as they feel they are protecting themselves from the negative affect our presence could have on them? Are we giving as much attention to our walk with Christ now as we did when we first got saved? Is the excitement still fresh and overflowing like it was in the weeks following our first cry of repentance? Do we still long to share the gospel with those around us and invite anyone and everyone to church in hopes that they too will have their own life-changing encounter with the One who spoke the world into existence? Tough reality, huh?
My prayer is that I would always have a heart after God and the evidence of that shall be utterly undeniable!! May I forever be rooted and grounded in the truth of God’s word allowing nothing that I face to knock me off my firm foundation! Lord, search me and know me! I want your love to trickle out of every ounce of my being! I want the Holy Spirit to pioneer me through this ever-challenging journey here on this earth! But, most importantly, may I never lose sight of where I was when our merciful God reached down His hand, picked me up and extended forgiveness to remember my sins NO MORE!!
I pray for you as well, that your beginning days of encountering Him would be forever fresh in your mind, and may those memories be the source of the passion that drives you to always live a life pleasing unto God! I challenge you to take a step back, be still, and evaluate. Is your walk with Christ in the like condition of my husband’s yucky ole truck? Or, is it as that of a brand new car— listen close, as the still small voice of the Lord will surely let you know -just as He did for me.
— In His Grip
Sarah Abernathy
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