Car Wash Christianity

"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil," Isaiah 1:16 I live out in the country on a dirt road and I enjoy the space and the peace that goes along with it. Try as I might, it seems to be an exercise in futility to wash our vehicles. One trip out, and depending on the weather, the car or truck is covered in either dust or mud. Pondering that made me think of how we often approach our spirital life. Often, we go to church on Sundays and enjoy a time of worship and The Word only to walk back into the same old garbage afterwards. Don't get me wrong, we need church. We need fellowship with other believers. But, what we need more than anything is real heart change. We need to learn how to praise God in the storms of life & not go back to our old and comfortable ways of sin. "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1) What does it benefit us to be wishy-washy in our faith? How does that point anyone to God? Either we are fully dependent on Him or we are fully dependent on self. Self typically takes us down the wrong path... We need to be fully committed in our faith. We can't hold hands with Jesus while we are dancing with the devil. We need to choose one or the other. Personally, I know that I mess up at times & don't display godly characteristics. But, I do try & be repentant and change my ways. God knows we aren't perfect like Him, but our goal should be to be as much like Him as possible. "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." (2 Corinthians 7:1) We have to bring ourselves under submission to His Will. His Way is better. Lord knows that I have tried doing things my way a lot in life & then had major messes to clean up as a result. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) So, let's not have a car wash Christianity, praising Him one day and wallowing in the mud the next. Let's be fully committed in our faith! Blessings, Tony