Friday, March 29, 2013

R.E.A.L. Women Devotional - Dirty Laundry





By 9:30 am this morning I had 3 loads of laundry done.  This is like most Friday mornings as far as the routine goes, but it wasn't just any Friday, it's Good Friday.  The one day a year that we reflect on what Jesus did with our dirty laundry.  

Each one of us is born with an "empty hamper" so to speak.  But from the first temper tantrum in those first days because we aren't getting what we want, the first piece of dirty laundry gets dropped in that "dirty clothes box" as we used to call it. From that day on our "hamper of sin" continues to fill upIt's not until we realize that there is one who takes that laundry and washes it for us and makes us clean.  

Revelation 22:14 says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life." (NLT) You see, when we bring our dirty laundry to the cross, which is what  Good Friday is all about, it's like bringing your life that has been soiled with stains that are unable to be removed to the Salvation dry cleaners.  Jesus is the only one who can remove those "hard to get" stains from your life and make you clean.  We then are clean with His righteousness and can now be dressed for eternity.  It is sad that there are some who choose to live with a hamper full of dirty clothes, when Jesus gave His life so they may be clean.  

There is an old hymn that I often think about when I think of the blood Jesus shed for us.  The lyrics say:
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.


I pray that this "Good Friday" you would take your "dirty laundry" to the One who can wash you white as snow.  If you have already been laundered, then I pray you would remember that day that Jesus made it possible for you to be one of those who are "blessed" who will be able to enter the gates and eat from the tree of life.  I pray you will be thankful for this gift that no man that has ever existed, exists or will exist could give to you, except Jesus Christ the Messiah.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).