Go With the Flow
For about the last month, my bathroom sink has been draining slowly. I have tried a couple of things that I thought would help, but nothing happened. At the end of my tries, I still had a slow moving drain. Last night, I saw that there was something attached to the side of the stopper, but I didn't have time to work on it last night. But I remembered it tonight.
In the middle of a short prayer time tonight, the Holy Spirit corrected me. No one really likes to be corrected; we all have a tendency to think that we know the basics well enough to live our spiritual lives. That just makes me think of the movie "Angels in the Outfield". At the beginning of the movie, Danny Glover tells his team 'We're going back to fundamentals!' and the entire professional baseball team starts groaning and complaining. (Yes, you know this movie. It's the same movie that came up with the line: 'Look! It's God's thumbnail.') Back to correction - no one likes it, but it still has to be done. There are so many things that we learn as Christians that it is really impossible not to need to go back to the early things we learned: Pride, forgiveness, righteousness, and so much more. Every once in a while, we just need a refresher! And the Holy Spirit gave that to me tonight...correcting and refreshing. (Just remember that when the Holy Spirit is in it, He doesn't just leave you feeling terrible. He corrects and then refreshes. You come out better on the other side.)
So, in my prayer time, we had a little correction about PRIDE. In order to keep this short, I thought what I was doing was more important than what He was doing (or trying to do). And He was wonderful about it. He showed me what I did wrong, He helped me to understand that even though I had this huge pile of pride that I was still called - still worthy of being called because I had asked for and received forgiveness, and then He showed me how to resist Satan when he tried to remind me of my stupidity. Really, when the Holy Spirit corrects, He does it all the way.
That's when I remembered the bathroom sink (yes, right after that correction - with the Holy Spirit, timing is everything). I took a Q-tip (sorry to all those plumbers out there) and slid it around the mouth of the stopper. Within a few swipes, I found my problem: hair. The moment I saw it, I grabbed the proper tool (no, I don't know what it is called), and I proceeded to pull out the hair. Um, gross. There was a lot, and it was disgusting. I am sure that you have been in the same predicament that I have, so I won't dwell on how much toilet paper it took to clean off the tool every time it came out of the drain. I am sure you know (and if you don't, you are blessed). So, finally, the sink was draining properly again because the gross ickiness that was blocking the flow was out of the way (Praise the Lord).
It was at this moment that the Holy Spirit told me that is exactly what He does when He corrects. He cleans out the blockages so that He can flow better in our lives. He removes the dirt and the ickiness that we have allowed to accumulate just so that He can make things clear to us. When we block Him (whether on purpose or not), nothing is ever going to be clear to us. He can't get His word to us when we ask for it. We get confused or anxious because we think He isn't speaking when really, He is just being blocked.
Get rid of the blockages! Let the Spirit flow freely. He wants to flow in our lives so that other people will want to know Him. That's our mission in life!
In the middle of a short prayer time tonight, the Holy Spirit corrected me. No one really likes to be corrected; we all have a tendency to think that we know the basics well enough to live our spiritual lives. That just makes me think of the movie "Angels in the Outfield". At the beginning of the movie, Danny Glover tells his team 'We're going back to fundamentals!' and the entire professional baseball team starts groaning and complaining. (Yes, you know this movie. It's the same movie that came up with the line: 'Look! It's God's thumbnail.') Back to correction - no one likes it, but it still has to be done. There are so many things that we learn as Christians that it is really impossible not to need to go back to the early things we learned: Pride, forgiveness, righteousness, and so much more. Every once in a while, we just need a refresher! And the Holy Spirit gave that to me tonight...correcting and refreshing. (Just remember that when the Holy Spirit is in it, He doesn't just leave you feeling terrible. He corrects and then refreshes. You come out better on the other side.)
So, in my prayer time, we had a little correction about PRIDE. In order to keep this short, I thought what I was doing was more important than what He was doing (or trying to do). And He was wonderful about it. He showed me what I did wrong, He helped me to understand that even though I had this huge pile of pride that I was still called - still worthy of being called because I had asked for and received forgiveness, and then He showed me how to resist Satan when he tried to remind me of my stupidity. Really, when the Holy Spirit corrects, He does it all the way.
That's when I remembered the bathroom sink (yes, right after that correction - with the Holy Spirit, timing is everything). I took a Q-tip (sorry to all those plumbers out there) and slid it around the mouth of the stopper. Within a few swipes, I found my problem: hair. The moment I saw it, I grabbed the proper tool (no, I don't know what it is called), and I proceeded to pull out the hair. Um, gross. There was a lot, and it was disgusting. I am sure that you have been in the same predicament that I have, so I won't dwell on how much toilet paper it took to clean off the tool every time it came out of the drain. I am sure you know (and if you don't, you are blessed). So, finally, the sink was draining properly again because the gross ickiness that was blocking the flow was out of the way (Praise the Lord).
It was at this moment that the Holy Spirit told me that is exactly what He does when He corrects. He cleans out the blockages so that He can flow better in our lives. He removes the dirt and the ickiness that we have allowed to accumulate just so that He can make things clear to us. When we block Him (whether on purpose or not), nothing is ever going to be clear to us. He can't get His word to us when we ask for it. We get confused or anxious because we think He isn't speaking when really, He is just being blocked.
Get rid of the blockages! Let the Spirit flow freely. He wants to flow in our lives so that other people will want to know Him. That's our mission in life!
Comments
Post a Comment