I remember the time I finally got my 3 year old son, he is now 6, to take a nap after his exhaustive playing which consisted of play-doh, a noise pirate sword, his iron man costume, and noise making toy guitar. As he finally made it in my bed while watching a new cartoon on the television, he finally fell fast asleep looking like the angel he didn't portray a few moments before. This was finally my time to get the sweeping an mopping I wanted completed before the other members of my crew (my daughters) made it home from school.
I did the normal protocol of sweeping the hall, the dinning room, and the kitchen, which were my current areas of concentration. After discarding the trash, I proceeded to fill the mop bucket with the lemon scented cleaner, and the tile floor and I was ready to rumble. Having finished mopping the areas, I was coming to the close of my mopping conquest. I was ready to celebrate with a glass of cucumber and lemon water, and before I took off my house slippers making my way to the couch, i noticed an area I mopped but it wasn't clean. The type of tile that we have has different designs, and as you mop over them you need to be sure that you mop well, especially with 4 children ranging from the ages of 3 to 10. Yet, this one tile wasn't clean, and definitely not to my standards. In the kitchen there is a side door, and its a door with a window. So I could see the light shining on the floor which alarmed me that even though i had cleaned the area, I had not gotten the issue on the tile removed. It wasn't clear that there was something there because the light exposed that the tile was not yet completely clean.
I started thinking. What in my life, have I considered cleaned up, but the truth was it wasn't exposed to the light, being the Word of God, Jesus, that it wasn't completely clean. What situation have I overlooked, saying, "Im not concerned about that one anymore, its been resolved." Probably in my mind, but not in my heart. In Ephesians 5:13 the scripture says, "But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."See it wasn't until the light was shinning on the tile that it exposed the area needed a deeper cleaning. Isn't that much like life? Sometimes we think something is fixed in our lives, like that situation with a family member that you said you forgave them, but when they come around you throw shade dressed up in smiles of deception. Or that thing you know you stopped doing, but you keep thinking about it, and trying to convince yourself its ok if you did again, because you haven't given it to the Lord.
The second part of Psalm 26:2 says, "examine my heart and my mind." What issues lay within your heart that have not been examined? What things have not been exposed to the Lord? He knows all things. You see the second part of Ephesians 5:13 says, "and everything that is illuminated becomes a light." When the very situation or issue comes to the light to be exposed, you give it to the Lord, and it is changed, the transformation becomes light. Your situation becomes a light for someone else. You have a testimony to give someone to help them expose the things that needs to be exposed to the Lord, and once changed it becomes a light. So we all can go around turning on the light in people.
Much like that tile, the light exposed the truth, it wasn't completely cleaned, even though i washed over it. I had to go back and scrub it again. It was now clean. Some things in your life, you need to shine the light on, the Word of God and spot check to make sure its clean. Some things are hidden from plain site, which was why I couldn't see it. The light in the room was bright enough, just like your own strength isn't strong enough to conquer those things that are hidden. Yet, when we give them to the Lord, we see His strength and the battle is won. The issue is resolved. The tile is clean.