Filtering the Grit

“Filter everything through the Word” —I heard this message for three days each time I awoke in the early morning and again when my eyes opened from sleeping to start a new day. Filter means to pass through; limit the flow. That’s why we put a fresh coffee filter in the coffeemaker’s basket every day, so only flavorful coffee passes through to the carafe but not the coffee grounds. Who wants grit and bitterness?

Although I don’t consistently achieve what I strive for, I want to please my heavenly Father. I do my best to surrender my thoughts, words, actions, and family to God, but after hearing the same message several times, three days in a row, I’m rethinking my thinking. So, I went back to the beginning:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1–3

The living God existed when nothing else existed. The Father and the Word, Jesus, created everything and breathed the breath of life into man, and he became a living soul. All that we are, all that we have are His. But from the first humans on earth to mankind today, we have accumulated stuff that isn’t pleasing to our Creator. Our unpleasantness doesn’t leave grit and bitterness in Him but in us.

Born-again believers who have surrendered to the lordship of Christ have the presence of the resurrected Jesus living within us. The Holy Spirit, the third person of God, comforts us, guides us, reveals sin, rebukes, and teaches us. God has reminded me to LET GO and filter through the Word, my family (my plans for them and grip on them), possessions, friendships, days and nights, desires, all I am or hope to be, and all I see, hear, speak, or think. The Owner of everything limits what passes through His filter when we trust Him with our “stuff.” But we must first let go and put our stuff in the filter for the filtering to happen.

Are we confident the Word’s results are His best? All creation belongs to Him, who existed in the beginning before anything existed. He deserves and expects of His children a flavorful taste without grit. If you agree to trust your “stuff” with Him, LET GO.