Good morning! Many years ago, we went to a friend of a friend to take down their above ground pool so that we could bring it home and set it up in our yard. The pool was great, but over time it began to show signs of needing to be replaced. We shopped around and found a great deal, so we ended up making the purchase.
The pool came with everything we needed – liner, ladder, filter, and the pump – all we had to do was put it together! Thank God for the people who care about us so much (they know who they are) that they would give up their entire day to help us get this done!
I was pretty excited about the new filter because it was a sand filter, this is the same kind of filter we had at our childhood home. I could never understand the DE pool filters although I was told many times that they were the best, so I was looking forward to going back to a filter that I was more comfortable with.
The pool was running great until we got a stretch of rain and the pool slowly turned green. We ran the filter nonstop days upon days, which turned into a week. We tried shocking the pool and ensuring the chemical levels were where they needed to be. No matter what we did, the pool was not responding.
I noticed that as I tried to backwash the filter, the water seemed to be coming out clear and not the green that I was expecting. After exhausting all options, I decided to put the DE filter in that I still had from the old pool. Basically overnight, the pool was clear and ready to swim in again! It was wild, but I was so thankful!
This story got me thinking about how we are comfortable with things that we are used to, but they may not always be the best choice for us in the moment! I originally switched away from the DE filter because I was more comfortable with the sand filter. But even though I was comfortable with how it worked and how to use it, it was not filtering the pool properly, no matter what I tried to do!
The same thing can happen in our lives if we are not careful. We get stuck in making choices that are comfortable, instead of choices that will TRANSFORM our lives to be more like Jesus! It doesn’t matter if we have been told that something else is better, we want to do it the way that we know best.
We can begin to trade the truth in God’s Word for the truth that we can understand. If we think it is impossible to follow God’s principles in a certain area of our lives, we may be tempted to behave in a way that makes sense to us and seems to be more achievable. But the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Way, the [only] TRUTH, and the Life!
When we begin to lean on what is comfortable, our tendency will be to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. The problem with this is that God’s ways will not always make sense to us, and if we rely on our own understanding we will always come up short!
“Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”
1 Corinthians 3:18-19
This idea of being a fool means that the person who follows God’s principles may seem foolish to the people of this world. Think about the following examples:
- How many times do you hold a door for someone on their way into a building and they look at you like – why are you holding the door for me? Fool.
- How many times have you put others above yourselves and they tell you how they have never had someone do that for them? Fool.
- How many times have you refrained from involving yourself in gossip and other inappropriate behaviors only to be told – what, you think you are better than us? Fool.
The cultures and customs of this world, will never align with the ways of God. We have to be willing to leave behind the familiar and comfortable things that we used to do before accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And in turn, walk with God every day to know His Word and apply it to our lives and allow Him to TRANSFORM us! Just like the DE filter cleared the pool, God will do a cleansing work in our lives that others will be able to see and will use us to reach others!
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your amazing love! Thank You for TRANSFORMING my life daily and drawing me deeper into relationship with You! We want the people around us to see the work that You have done in our lives so that they can see Your power to do the same in them! Help us to not rely on the things that are comfortable in our lives, but to allow You to stretch us so that we can grow! In Jesus Name – AMEN!
Be Transformed 