scrubbed clean

Some time ago, during one of my personal dialogues with God, I felt

him asking for a tour of my heart. I opened myself to the idea, and

had a picture in my mind of my heart. It was a rocky beach. There

were cliffs overlooking the water, and there were large rock

formations everywhere. In my mind's eye, we walked in and among the

rocks. Then we came to one that I didn't want him to see. I rushed

ahead, and started to scrub the rock. Of course, the Lord quickly

caught up with me. What happened then was a process in my heart of me

naming this rock, and then handing over the scrub brush to him. He

scrubbed it clean, then led me up to one of the cliffs to get a good

view of the beauty of that wild beach.

This week when I read Psalm 51, I was immediately brought to that

image by the words in the first verse: "scrub away my guilt". In

fact the whole Psalm speaks to me of confession and surrender. It's

an encouragement to me to open my whole life to him, admit to my sin,

and allow him to scrub and soak it all away. What makes me think I

can scrub it clean myself? What makes me think I can even begin to

hide it from him? Certainly my pride. And I was drawn to verse 17,

"I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered

lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice." And I

remembered that as soon as I allowed him to do the scrubbing, I was

brought to the high and beautiful place, and I rested with him.

Posted by Candice Letkeman