We love the ocean.
The image of tumbling mountain streams carries away our imaginations.
Who doesn’t see a tropical waterfall and wish we were there?
No one much likes a downpour to unsettle their day’s plans.
Yet, the water we enjoy must come from somewhere. Without the rain that washes out our Saturday baseball game, crops wouldn’t grow and rivers would run dry.
There’s something else the rain does for us.
It washes everything clean.
Dust is a part of life. It stirs into the air from car tires, takes flight at the touch of farmers’ plows, and soars in the wind. It can’t help getting all over us and the things we own.
The rain – a good, heavy shower – carries it all away.
We must allow God to be the rain for us.
Galatians 5:24 says:
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Here’s the thing about a rain shower. Living things are attached by the roots. They remain after the rain is gone. Dead leaves and other debris are carried away in the gutters, dispersed by the flowing water.
Our worldly passions and desires are washed away by God’s cleansing rain of righteousness only if we have first crucified them.
If we nourish them in secret, they will remain rooted in us. God’s cleansing rain will have no effect on them.
We must be changed in God. We must become purified in him. We must allow him to clear away every dead branch and evil thing so that we can become like him.
We become pure in Christ when we desire only him.
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Code: FGO.J.27.19b.vp.esv