Cleaning Out

Isaiah 60:17-18

¹⁷ 
“Instead of bronze I will bring gold,
And instead of iron I will bring silver,
And instead of wood, bronze,
And instead of stones, iron.
And [instead of the tyranny of the present] I will appoint peace as your officers,
And righteousness your rulers.
¹⁸ 
“Violence will not be heard again in your land,
Nor devastation or destruction within your borders;
But you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise [to God].

I love to watch this one guy on Facebook. The picture shows a lawn that is so overgrown you cannot see the sidewalk or the driveway, much less the house. After dealing with my late father-in-law’s rental houses, I can attest to you that the before and after pictures of the same place is shocking. The transformation from a lot filled with overgrown everything and trash everywhere to a cleaned up lot full of promise is remarkable. The guy on Facebook always gives the thumbs up after he is done. The video post is sped up so the whole transformation process is seen in less than a few minutes. Love it.

Unfortunately, we don’t see such a transformation in a few minutes dealing with the real world. It would seem as if the overgrown weeds of life just keep slowly growing. We all seem to notice them but the slow growth allows us to get used to seeing them until they become part of our lives. Our government, our families, our crazy friends, our bad habits, all of them seem to grown on us like barnacles on a boat docked and not moving. Soon enough, it becomes a clean up job we never want to tackle so we just “deal” with it. Choosing this path forces us to become like hoarders we see on reality TV. They have so much stuff and trash they have made pathways only large enough for them to walk in and out on while the entire house is full of trash. The same trash that piece by piece was something you could not live without or part from. Welcome to lie of Satan.

That lie tells us we cannot depart from or get rid of those messy things because it would be such a chore to clean them up, you are better off just dealing with them. Those overgrown weeds took some time to grow. Our 2024 culture suffers from this everywhere we look. We have exchanged truth and love for empathy and understanding and it had created a hoarders mess in our world. We all see it. Weather or not we choose to actually view and call it out or just ignore it that does nothing to deal with it.

I have some good news. The Bible has laid out the healing process. In our verses above, the Lord tells us that he will replace all of the not so good things with priceless and precious things. Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron, iron in place of stones. He will make peace our governor and righteousness as our ruler. No longer will violence and destruction be in the land, nor ruin be within our borders. We will call our walls Salvation and our gates, Praise. All of this starts the moment we humble ourselves before the Lord and repent of the trash we have refuse to remove from our lives. Just like the Facebook guy and his clean up, it will take a while in some cases but the Lord will finish what He started.

Today, make the Lord your shining light (vs 19). Repent of the filth you have not dealt with. Humble yourself before the one true God who is the only one capable of cleaning your life up the right way. Trust in the Lord and the power of His might and he will make your enemies a footstool for you. Those sins you seem to be committing will no longer be your master. They will be a part of your past. Say hello to a new cleaned up lot in life. You can then give the camera a big thumbs up knowing “your days of sorrow will end” (vs20).

Prayer: Father, I pray that we appeal to heaven to root out the corruption in our government, our lives, our churches and our families. I pray and declare that God almighty will establish His throne and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I pray that we start with ourselves by humbling ourselves before you Father. Help us to let go of the earthly things and grab onto the heavenly things. In Jesus name, amen.