Have you ever set up a fresh water aquarium? I've set up a few over the years and recently I was blessed with a large aquarium so I could get my 3 large fish out of a smaller tank and into a bigger one. The process isn't a difficult, but one thing which occurs when setting up the tanks is the crystal clear water grows cloudy, very cloudy as the tank is transitioning, getting it's balance of good bacteria to grow. I'm not going to go into details of the whys and wherefores about it all but I'll tell you one thing-- I dislike the cloudy water immensely when it's going through that transitioning. The murky water is ugly making the entire tank look unsightly, not to mention how obscure the fish inside the tank become. Not only is it difficult for me to see the fish, the fish themselves aren't seeing all that well either. My three fish are very shy fish but when the water is murky they appear more outgoing, the reason being they can't see us so clearly- just like we can't see them easily. This new tank transitioning took about a month and a half this last time and I kept hoping it'd be quicker. Daily walking by the tank which is centrally located in the house and very hard to miss, just made me cringe. I wanted to hurry the process, I wanted that water clear! My beautiful fish tank was an eyesore and driving me crazy. The fish store has a lot of products out there to help you with cloudy water as well as numerous test kits to test your water to get it just right for the fish, however using them won't make that transition any easier and some say they even make it take longer for it to happen.
What's the point my relating all this to you? Well, we are all in a state of transitioning. We live in a filthy, cloudy, ugly world and it's only through Christ that we'll make the full transition to clarity and come out of this dark world we are born into. All around us are endless reminders of the decay in our world, contrary to that we also get endless reminders of the beauty that is in store for us in the perfect world. Just like a newly set up tank and it's crystal clear water, the beauty of the tank is seen but it's only temporary and the tank begins its transition. The hope of the beauty's return is there, the knowledge that it will be beautiful again exists, but for a period of time the tank seems hopeless, just one big mess. This world is a big mess but there is hope for the beauty of a new world one day. As long as we hold fast to our Lord and Savior no matter how murky life's waters get around us, no matter how much the ugliness tries obscure any and all beauty, we will prevail in Him.
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Our only hope is in Christ, there is no hope in us, no salvation in us, no righteousness in us, and people who try to get you to focus on yourself rather than pointing you to the only source of our righteousness are only hindering you. We have to rely on Christ so fully, so completely that we are living our lives continuously connected to our source of life. We can't just grab God on the go and get a God fix when needed. We are in constant need of God, an unending need. We can't live in Christ if we set Him aside until our night time devotion, or our morning prayer. No, I'm not saying night time devotions and morning prayers are wrong, no, no, no. What I'm saying is this… our night time devotions shouldn't be like a reunion with one we've not seen all day but rather a special cuddling time with one you've worked side-by-side with all day long. Living in this murky sin-filled world we need Christ by us always in all we do if we're to get through our transition period, going from a sin-filled world to our eventual sin-less world. Unlike my fish tank when there was nothing I could do but wait as the natural process unfolded, we have Christ to cling to and He's seen through all the murky waters to the crystal clear water. We have to hold fast, trusting in Him as the answer to all of life's murkiness.
Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
By the grace and mercy of our loving Savior, in Him ALWAYS!
Amen.
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