Shonda at Shonda's Journal has written our Sabbath Reflections post for this weekend.  Thank you Shonda for helping out during this time.

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Remove the Scum

 By:  Shonda Whitworth

I pray when I clean. I learned to pray from the most beautiful housekeeper I had ever known. An all Titus 2 woman, she taught me to pray for the family and other things that come to my mind when I put away the dishes, pick up the dirty socks, wash their clothes, and make the beds. She has moved on, but what she taught me still remains.

While on my knees cleaning and praying, I worked hard to scrub the scum out of the tub. I skipped a couple of weeks of cleaning as it is my bathroom. I rationalized that only my husband and I use it. No big deal. But over those couple of weeks, lots of soap scum built up. I worked hard. The chemicals, Scotch-Brite® Pads, gloves, elbow grease, and prayer were required to remove the scum that built up over those few weeks.

As I asked the Lord to help me remove the scum, I felt like He dropped a word in my heart about housecleaning. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 6:19 (NIV) says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” I felt convicted to keep my house—my temple for the Holy Spirit clean.

Like that scum on the bathtub that sat there for two weeks, sin will build up in our lives if not dealt with. The longer sin is allowed to go unchecked, the more difficult it is to remove.

As I have a daily housekeeping schedule, I was convicted that I also need a daily temple of the Holy Spirit cleansing schedule.  If I clean out my temple on a regular basis and keep my heart before the Lord, then the scrubbing and removing sin from my life will be less painful.

David’s life has several examples of conviction of sin as he had a prophet to confront him. We have the Holy Spirit who convicts us.  If we seek the Lord daily and ask Him to reveal to us the areas that need cleansing, He will show us.   

David was called a man after God’s own heart. Not because he did everything right, but because after the conviction, he confessed his sins. One of my favorite Scriptures to pray is part of the prayer David prayed after he sinned with Bathsheba. Psalm 51:10-12 NIV says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

God is light and in order to walk in the light, we must be purified from all sin by the blood of Jesus. (1 John 1:7) Even though we have Jesus in our hearts, we still sin. First John 1:8-10 (NIV) says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”

Oh how I long for all of us to keep Him in our lives. I desire that fellowship with my Father, through Jesus. I am so thankful that He is faithful to forgive us from our sins when we’re willing to confess them.

Knowing the Lord made a way for us to have continual fellowship with Him, through His Son and the Holy Spirit; I desire to keep my temple of the Holy Spirit clean.

May we all remove the scum from our temples daily. No Scotch-Brite® Pads necessary!

Just as we need chemicals and scrubbing pads to remove built up scum in our tubs, we also need the blood of Jesus to remove the scum from our lives.  Without Him, it is impossible to clean our hearts.