I am starting to hate stuff. Not all stuff, but the stuff that’s acquired over the course of four years without having a yard sale – that kind of stuff. In the past four years we have welcomed a new baby to the family, had two teenagers join us for a time, birthdays and Christmases for a family of six… suffice it say, we have accumulated quite a bit. My house is starting to look pretty big without all the furniture and stuff, but I find that I’m growing a bit weary in this necessary purge.
With this type of work in the house, I have been playing sermons on repeat. Can’t really read while folding clothes and packing boxes. While the great purge of 2025 has become a bit burdensome, I have found that the Word of God has offered a refreshment that I really needed in order to plow on through this packing process. God’s Word really does cover all areas of life. Finances – the Bible has a lot to say. Relationships – that’s covered from beginning to end. Parenting – not just found in Proverbs. Only scratching the surface.
As I’ve been packing, I’ve been listening. As I’ve been listening, I’ve been reminded of His goodness, His grace, and the favor that we seem to not always recognize. It’s so sad to me that there is such a disconnect from grace. It’s as though we have come to believe that God’s grace only goes so far in our salvation and shame on us for believing God to be better than we’ve been told.
While cleaning bathroom sinks and cabinets, truths that I’ve learned but forgotten have come back to the forefront of my mind. It’s difficult to avoid glancing in the mirror while cleaning it – wondering how God can possibly see us as He sees Jesus. I see my reflection and can’t help but see the flaws – is that what God sees?
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. I John 4:15-17 NASB
I have to confess that I have taken for granted the power of the English language. I read so many words throughout my day, but their power is often not fully evident in my consciousness. That word, abides, takes my breath away when I spend time really focusing on it. I’ll read it, but I don’t always realize the depth of what it means. God abides in me… The Creator of the universe has His residence, His presence, and His life is being lived in me! This is not conditional on my behavior, works, thoughts, or deeds – I am the definition of a fixer-upper – but it is entirely on the finished, redemptive work of Jesus!
Not sure it’s something that can be fathomed this side of Heaven, but we see throughout the Old Testament that, while God desired to be with His people, no one was holy enough. The just right sacrifices done in just the right way, at just the right time, with the priest that met the requirements to offer the sacrifices still didn’t afford us the worthiness to be the dwelling place of the Most High God. I see the flaws in the mirror and think that there’s most definitely a better-looking temple for God to abide in.
I know where the age spots are that are getting harder to blend in and cover up. The thinning eyebrows, and the peeking out of wrinkles seen if the angle is just right… the curves of the mom-bod that has been running on too much coffee and not enough water… and the wardrobe that is considered more frumpy than fashionable. Is God really abiding in this? Willingly?
These verses from I John 4 shines a different light on so many passages that many of us miss – okay, so I have missed them – me. Last week I wrote some scary phrases about God’s wrath and anger burning against us, and I hope that after reading you understood that His wrath was forever satisfied. Jesus took the full punishment of all sin for all time for the whole world (I John 2:2). Reading this, do we believe the verses that tell us about how God deals with the righteous?
We might read that God blesses the righteous (Psalm 5:12), the righteous will flourish (Psalm 92:12), or that God hears the prayers of the righteous (Proverbs 15:29) and think, Man, if I could just get my stuff together then God would hear my prayers, I would be blessed and flourish – and a multitude of other things God does for the righteous. How often do we see ourselves as righteous? How often do we see the failings and flaws – the frumpy – instead of the robes of righteousness that are fashionable in every season?
What is righteousness? The easy answer is that we are in right standing with God. But do we understand the magnitude of what being in right standing with God really means? I know that I struggle with it when I catch a glimpse of my reflection. This right standing though, could never be brought about in my own efforts. I could never earn my righteousness, I could never get my mess managed, and I absolutely know that my thoughts are not God’s thoughts. On my own, I am far from being righteous.
There’s not a cream or serum strong enough, there’s no such thing as a magic pill, and fashion changes with each season (I’m so glad because the 80’s were a tough time for fashion). There’s nothing I could do to for this fixer-upper to be worthy of having God dwell in me other than accept what Jesus did for me.
That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9-10 NASB
God knew it from the beginning that none of us could be righteous on our own. He knew we couldn’t walk out perfection in our thoughts, hearts, and deeds. Instead of washing His hands of us and starting over, He made it so easy for us: believe and confess for righteousness and salvation. Believe and confess and receive the make-over of all time.
Read this aloud – I am righteous, therefore I am blessed. I am righteous, therefore I will flourish in all things. I am righteous, therefore God hears my prayers, and He even helps me pray, too! I have God abiding in me because He made me righteous!
As we pack all the stuff away in boxes, scrub the walls and clean the crevices high and low (and everything in between), I can’t help but think about how Jesus did that in me. He’s made a dwelling place inside me, a place to abide. And He didn’t wait till I had all the stuff sorted before moving in.
While this sounds like I’m a fixer-upper, God doesn’t see me that way. And if you’ve done your believing and confessing, you’re not going to get any more righteous this side of Heaven than you are right now. Rest in the knowledge that the Creator of all things is pleased to make you His dwelling place… and He’ll sort out the rest.