To throw out the baby with the bathwater is to throw away what’s good with what is not. It means, simply, to make a clean sweep. Everything goes; nothing stays; we are going to start afresh at any cost.
Now, that’s not a bad idea if everything in our life is junk. However, what about those times that we feel like we’ve been the ones tossed aside, wonderful us, the one person that deserves better treatment…well, we get the idea. Someone has thrown out the bathwater, and since we were close by, out we went, also.
“Not me,” we cry. “Did you not notice? I’m the important one, the one that you should have rewarded with gold and jewels, frankincense and myrrh, a fine job and a new BMW.”
We feel we’ve been tossed aside heedlessly, cast into the darkness, literally thrown out with the baby’s dirty bathwater, and we deserve better. God should have paid attention.
He has, and he tells us so in his Word. He strokes us with his love, and he lets us know it will be all right.
Love Stroke #1:
Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Love Stroke #2:
Deuteronomy 31:6 – “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Love Stroke #3:
Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Love Stroke #4:
Romans 8:38-39 – “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Love Stroke #5:
Isaiah 49:15-16 – “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”
Love Stroke #6:
2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Love Stroke #7:
Philippians 4:19 – “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
God does not toss us out with the bathwater. Rather, he opens up new doors of opportunities for us, ones that we wouldn’t step through if we felt safe and secure. He wants us to feel just uncomfortable enough that we can squirm a bit, look around us for a way out, and grab the opportunities he offers us, out of desperation, if for no other reason. We might blame our desperation, but God knows differently. We are grabbing at the opportunity he wished us to have anyway, and he knew we would not have grabbed at it any other way.
When we find ourselves in desperate circumstances, rather than complain, we should take the time to look for God’s opportunities. That’s why he has placed us where we are.
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