Trying to Hide the Trash

I recently saw a house with a nice neat and tidy yard. The occupants were not wealthy but they kept their yard looking nice.  The yard was surrounded by a rock wall, but if you looked over the wall in the back of the property, you would see mountains of garbage.  It was left there to rot and for someone else to pick up.  It was stinky and looked very bad.

Many people try to do the same thing in their own life.  You meet them, they look great on the outside and the parts of them that you see and get to know seem very well kept and free from clutter.  But inside they have put up a wall over which they have thrown the trash that they wish no one to see.  This trash might consist of past hurts, past abuse, a secret sin, a bad attitude, etc.  The problem is that eventually this trash will begin to stink or pile up so much that it flows over into the neat and tidy areas.  Some of these people are just trying to hide the junk, and expect others to clean it up for them.  They hope that no one ever sees it or looks over that wall.  But you can only pile up so much trash before it is visible to everyone and can no longer be hidden.

The good news is that there is someone that can clean it up or help us clean it up.  No matter how neat and tidy we try and make ourselves look, this person can see through that wall to the trash behind it.  Jesus is that person. He wants to clean us up.  He doesn't ask us to take out the garbage before He comes to us, He says that He will accept us as we are and help us clean out the trash.  He has a giant trash bin waiting to fill up with our trash.  1 John 1:9 tells us: "But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong."  He will take our trash away from us.  But firs we have to let Him and be willing to let him see behind the wall. 

This does not just apply to unbelievers; it applies equally to believers as well.  Many believers try and hide their trash and often do a great job of it.  But eventually, if we want to move forward in God and grow past the stage we are at, we have to confess that sin to Jesus and allow Him to take the trash out from behind the wall.  It makes no difference what the outside looks like if we are filled with trash on the inside.  God's desire is that we be filled with Him, with His Holy Spirit, not with the trash from our past or the sins that we want to hang on to.  God calls us to be Holy.  1 Peter 1:14-17 tells us: "Obey God because you are his children. Don't slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God -- who chose you to be his children -- is holy.  For he himself has said, "You must be holy because I am holy."  And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as foreigners here on earth."  The good news is that He is the one the helps us to clean out the garbage and He is the one that makes us holy. (Leviticus 22:32, as well as many other places).

I challenge you to look behind that wall you have erected and look and see if you have trash hidden there while trying to make every other area of your life look nice and neat.  It doesn't matter what is there.  God promises to make us holy and to make us holy.  He promises to forgive us.  Then just like the woman caught in adultery, He will say to you "'Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?'  'No, Lord,' she said. And Jesus said, 'Neither do I. Go and sin no more.'  Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."  (John 8:10-12).

Jesus I ask that the one reading this will have the courage to look behind their wall and allow You to remove the garbage and make them holy.  Shine your light into their heart so that they can live a life worthy of Your calling and a life that reflects You and not their own efforts."