Washing Feet

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 7:23-26 & John 13

Scripture:

"If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them." John 13:17

Observation:

Getting information and then putting it into practice is the essence of discipleship. There are a couple of things I see this morning that I need to put into better practice.

Application:

First, I have to let Jesus wash my feet. This comes in the form of repentance of my sins. While the day I surrendered my life to Christ I was forever washed clean and my salvation was set for eternity; I still sin. As long as I walk on this earth my feet will get dirty and I must submit to Jesus washing my feet by allowing Him to daily remove the grit of my sins.

Second, I have to wash the feet of others. This one is really tough. People do some snappy bad things. Their sin is against God but often their actions hurt me. In the midst of my hurt it is the example of Christ that I am to follow and forgive them to the same measure that God has forgiven me. In doing this, I must also remember that I myself am capable of doing some pretty awful things to people.

Prayer:

There is a beautiful picture painted in this scripture of how You approach washing my feet. In my mind I have always approached Your cleansing me of my failures much like going to the principal's office to get punishment. That is not the image I see this morning. What I see this morning is Jesus inviting me in for a banquet, asking me to recline at His table, and then humbling Himself to wash my feet before we eat. Thank You for the gift of forgiveness and the manner in which You decided to express it.

I do not forgive in the manner. I could sit for an hour wrestling with this and come up with a rationalization for how I express forgiveness, but there is no use denying the fact that I really stink at offering forgiveness. My forgiveness is often vengeful for I want to make sure that someone is really sorry. My forgiveness is conditional for I want to make sure that there have been some consequences. I confess this attitude of mine to You today as sin.

Father it is beyond my ability to walk out these two things. Holy Spirit I submit to You today and pray that You lead me to move past the simple knowledge of these things and empower me to step fully into the blessing of doing these things.