Keep Your Filter Clean

 I have one of the best vacuum cleaners on the market.  It is so satisfying to know that when I clean, my floor is truly clean.  The vacuum comes with a hard floor attachment, and when I run that across my dark laminate dining room floor, I can see all of the dust and dirt that it picks up.  But a couple of weeks ago I noticed that, when I was vacuuming the dining room floor under the table, some of the crumbs were being pushed away instead of sucked up.  It didn't matter how many times I ran over those crumbs, they were still on the floor.  Then when I went to the living room to vacuum the carpet there, the suction didn't feel as strong, and the vacuum started to make a strange noise.  Something was definitely not functioning the way that it should.  I proceeded to pull apart the vacuum and troubleshoot.  I cleaned out all of the hoses, and made sure the canister was emptied and the filter under the canister was clean.  I put it all back together, and... the same thing.  Poor suction and not all of the dirt was getting vacuumed up.  It turns out that there was a little filter inside the canister that I didn't know existed.  That filter had become filled up with hair and dust, and the airflow was blocked.  Until I got up in there and removed all of that mess, my vacuum was not going to function properly.

Doesn't that sound like our lives?  When we don't stay in tune with the Holy Spirit, we simply cannot function properly.  We can put on a good face and make it look like everything is fine on the outside, but until we get to the inside, we are just not cleaned up enough to function.  And so often we want to clean up the obvious things, but we don't want to deal with the ugliness that is hiding deep down.  Sometimes we stuff that ugliness so far down that, like that little filter in my vacuum, we don't even realize it's there.

It's time to clean the filter.  It's time to look deep within ourselves and be honest before the Lord.  What kind of dust and dirt is hiding beneath the surface that you've been putting off dealing with?  Remember, the Body of Christ is supposed to function like a well-oiled machine.  But when some of the parts of that body aren't cleaned up, the body has a hard time functioning properly.  Before I cleaned my vacuum filter, it would still turn on and suck up some of the dirt, but it wasn't doing the job it was meant to do.  So it is with God's church.  We cannot possibly serve Him the way we're supposed to when we choose to allow our sin to remain uncleaned.  Confess the sin, repent of the sin, and get it forgiven by the blood of Jesus.  Ask the Lord to show you sin that you maybe aren't even aware is in your life.

Clean that filter, my friend, and watch how well you are able to serve the Lord!