As Pure as Water - Martin Wiles

But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Habakkuk 1:13 NLT

With most of the world’s rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans too polluted to safely drink from without purification, we looked at one that was 98% pure. I could not imagine being as pure as water.

While on vacation, my wife and I visited Forbidden Caverns near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. As we descended more than three hundred feet to the lowest point of our tour, we saw flowing water. A river that came from somewhere high above and snaked through cracks and openings in the cavern to flow into the bowels of the earth.

Looking at the water, I could tell it was different. Moonshiners and Native Americans once used it to ply their trade and survive in the wild. And without harm. Our guide told us why. The water was 98% pure. One could drink it without risk of harm—no need for filtration.

God’s purity, however, is greater than the cavern water. Throughout all sixty-six books of the Bible, God is proclaimed as pure—100 percent. Pagan gods were untrustworthy and not always after the best interests of their followers, but the God of Israel was different. Not an iota of evil is attached to his character. He expects His followers to adhere to the same code of conduct. Trouble is, I’m not pure. Nor can I be by my own power.

Polluted water can be made drinkable by filtration. While hiking and backpacking, I’ve drunk from many questionable water sources, but I protected myself by filtering the water. When it comes to my nature, I can’t do anything to make it pure. I can try turning over new leaves—and I may do well temporarily--but I can’t make myself good permanently. Bad attitudes, foul language, greedy thoughts, and lustful looking will creep in.

God must have known He was requiring something we weren’t capable of since he sent his pure Son to do for humanity what we couldn’t do for ourselves. When we accept what Christ did on Calvary’s cross, we’re given his righteousness, his purity. God considers our sin debt paid, not because we paid it, but because his Son paid it for us. God has filtered us by the blood of Christ and made us 100 percent pure. 

Don’t try to be good so God will accept you. Instead, accept God and let him change your nature.

Father, I thank you for doing for me what I could never do for myself. 

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Filtering Life - Martin Wiles

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 136:1 NLT

I met him on an informational walk on the Foothills Trail—a thru-hiker of the Appalachian Trail.

Meeting and talking with a thru-hiker excited me. As he discussed his adventure, he related the only time he had to leave the trail. He had visited a trail shelter where trail angels left fresh fruit in a nearby stream. Without thinking, he lunged into an apple without washing it. He soon found himself suffering from giardia from water bacteria and sidelined from the trail for a few days of misery.

I’ve never drunk unfiltered water from creeks, lakes, or streams without filtering it. Spending the money required for a dependable filtering source is worth the effort, as is ensuring I replace the filter and clean it regularly.

Filtering life’s experiences isn’t quite as easy as filtering water. All I must do with water is place the filter in the water source and pump. What comes into my drinking canister is at least 99% pure. The chances I’ll be infected are slim. Not so with filtering life. Life’s experiences vary in intensity and probability, and advice on how to face them is plentiful.

The psalmist concluded everything he said about God with the refrain, “His (God’s) faithful love endures forever.” This is a dependable filtering system. Whatever comes our way, we can rest assured that God’s faithful love for us endures forever.

God doesn’t filter his love through our behavior. If he did, most wouldn’t experience it regularly. Instead, he filters his love through his nature—which is love. While his nature also encompasses holiness—which involves his divine wrath against sin—his nature is to love all people, good and bad.

God’s Word is the only reliable filtering source. Other sources may or may not allow bacteria that could taint how we respond to a particular life experience. As the psalmist used God’s revealed Word throughout his life journey to filter his experiences, we, too, can find there a source of instruction and encouragement to help us filter life. When filtered through God’s Word, unpleasant life experiences will lose the potential to infect us with bitterness, anger, confusion, unbelief, and doubt.

Change your perspective on life experiences by filtering them through God’s Word.

Father, when difficulties come my way, lead me to filter them through the teachings of your Word. 

Tweetable: Through what are you filtering your life? 

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