Exfoliate My Soul

You alone can rescue, you alone can save

You alone can lift us from the grave.

You came down to find us, led us out of death.

To you alone belongs the highest praise.

 

I lift up my eyes, lift up my eyes.

You're the giver of life.

(Matt Redman)

The giver. Of life. There is still so much deadness in me.  He came down and rescued me and put my feet on a sure foundation.  He met me right where I was... steeped in my iniquity. He led me out of death.  He's leading me out of death, too.  Because the clock is still ticking and I'm still sinning.  So He is continually pulling out his blood-stained linens of grace to clean me from the inside out. 

But it's typically not a Harry Potter wand-wave transformation.  A flick of the wrist does not tend to make the dead alive. It could.  He could.  He has enough power to do it that way, but His love knows a better way and His mercy is bent to healing. So He usually chooses to tenderly clean our wounds one layer at a time.  And that is where the real power comes from - His gentleness and grace, love and mercy.  This is what beckons me closer.  How He knows all of my stuff and still draws me near to Him.  How He sees every last stain and still pulls me into His holiness to make me new, make me His.  To give me life.  Not breathing-in-air life.  But breathing-in-Christ life.

As I breathe in more of Christ's fragrance, I long for all this deadness to be washed away.  Not gently, but a vigorous exfoliation. 

O Lord, exfoliate my soul and bring forth a spring of new life. Make me radiant with your love and mercy.  Lord, shake this place within me and fill me with a fresh indwelling of your Holy Spirit.  Make me brave, Lord. Make me bold. Here and now for your glory, for your people, in your time, in your way.  All for you.  I need you.  You alone. Amen.