Have you ever vacuumed a room and thought you got all the dirt, then moved a rug (or a piece of furniture) and discovered more dirt hidden underneath? I have!
This just happened to me the other day. I came home from Church and was trying to digest the message. The way my brain works, sometimes I need to move or do something to think. Blame the ADHD. I was vacuuming my bedroom and was just about done; I then moved a rug, and guess what? I found more dirt! I had to laugh because I felt God speaking to my heart. This is common sense, or should be. There is always hidden dirt in our homes. But isn't it funny how God can use something as simple as vacuuming our floors to deliver a message? I love it!
Let's swap out the word dirt and replace it with the word sin. YUCK right? That is even worse than dirt! No one wants to talk about sin, especially our sin. It is easy for us to see everyone else's sin, but we don't like to be called out on our own. The last time I checked, I am human, and I hope whoever is reading this is also. Humans sin. We can't help ourselves. Romans 3:23 says, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard." 'If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. '1 John 1:8. So really, let's humble ourselves and admit that we sin.
"If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.” 1 John 1:8 NLT
From the Biblical perspective, sin is defined as doing something that goes against God's divine law. To know what God calls sin, you must be in His Word. I didn't write the Bible, so I don't get to argue with God on what He does and does not call sin. And neither can you. If you want to read more on this topic, here are some scriptures to start with 1 John 3:4, Isaiah 33:22, and James 4:12. I am not here to condemn you of your sin; that is between you and God. We don't get to determine what is and is not sin; that is God's job.
Anyways....... back to vacuuming.
“We sweep our sin under the rug thinking we can hide it.”
As I was vacuuming, I couldn't help but laugh when God laid it on my heart that we do the same thing with sin. We sweep our sin under the rug, thinking we can hide it. And while we may be able to hide it from other humans and even ourselves, God sees the hidden sin. Our sin is not hidden from Him. God sees what is in our hearts, thoughts, and feelings deep within us. He knows more about us than even we do! And He knows every sin, the ones we know about and the ones we don't even realize we are doing. See 1 Samuel 16:7, Mark 7:21-23, and Matthew 15:19 for a few Biblical references.
Nothing is hidden from God. Let God move your rug!
'Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.' -Hebrews 4:13
Our flesh tends to say, "nah, I am good with God." This comes from a continuous mentality of sweeping our dirt under the rug and not dealing with it. God calls us to repent of our sins, to turn away from them. The best part, God already knows! He wants us to humble our hearts, approach Him, and say, "Lord, I messed up, I am sorry! Help me sin no more. Help me to turn away from what keeps me separated from You." To have a heart willing to hear the ugly about ourselves so He can come in and clean up the dirt in our lives. God gives grace to His Children. But how do we know if we aren't in a relationship and communication with God? When was the last time you asked God to reveal the dirt, aka sin, in your life? When was the last time you asked God in prayer:
'Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.' -Psalms 139:23-24
God is not calling us to be perfect; He is calling us to seek Him, repent, and turn from our sins. See Acts 3:19.
Don't be afraid to turn to your heavenly Father and ask Him to reveal the sin in your life to you. I promise you will eventually have to talk to him about it anyways (Romans 14:12). He is a safe place to discuss these things! Don't fear God in this way; fear NOT going to Him. Give Proverbs 28:13 a read. This is part of the sanctification process we go through when we are saved. It allows God to come in and do the deep clean we genuinely need. Sanctification is:
"A progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and more like Christ in our actual lives." - Wayne Grudem
So ask Him the hard questions and know these two things:
'But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.' 1 John 1:9-10
For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child." Hebrews 12:6
And just so you know, the story ends the same for all of us.
"For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body." 2 Corinthians 5:10
I love this analogy. It made me think too about how often I am in a hurry and just clean around things, getting the areas I can easily see and not taking the time to more the furniture and deal with what is hiding underneath. How often do I address the “obvious” sins in my life but neglect to take the time to look closer look and really deal with allll of it.