While working on a house in Arizona with my husband, the garage toilet literally blew up! There were large amounts of toilet paper and other stuff (that I won’t mention) all over the walls and floor.

Doug sent me to the hardware store with a list of necessary items and when I returned, he got to work. I held out a large black garbage bag (with yellow kitchen gloves of course!), and my precious husband deposited the “filthy rags” into it. He was gagging and said, “I can gut a deer and do a lot of things, but this is tough!” I was laughing so hard I was crying, and blurted out, “I don’t think I’ve ever loved you as much as I do right now!!”

How in the world does this experience relate to God’s Word? I can think of several verses. Isaiah writes, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousness are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” (64:6)

God also says in 1 John 1:8-9, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.”

God asks us to come to Him just as we are; unclean and filthy to the very core. He then clean us up from the inside out as we submit to His will.

Father God, thank you for continuing to clean me up from the inside out. I struggle with sin daily and need Your Word and Holy Spirit to guide and direct my words, thoughts and actions. Thank you for sending Your Son to take all my filthiness upon Him when He died on the cross. Amen.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1