What Are You Doing with Your Dirty Laundry?

If your washing machine has ever broken and you have made the awful mistake as I did of dumping the sopping clothes into a laundry basket and waiting a few days until you got your washer fixed to properly clean the soiled load, you will undoubtedly learn the stinking lesson I did. Don’t do it again. I had to wash the same load over and again to get the stink out. I am reminded of a young woman who rented a room from me who excitedly decided in what was her first experience living away from home to try using a clothesline. A few rainy episodes later, she resorted to the dryer. Perhaps she gave up too soon, but thankfully washers and dryers have long since replaced the old fashioned days of laboriously washing clothes by hand. There is something to be said, however, for the clean, fresh air-dried smell of clothes hung out on the clothesline. Isn’t it something how much of America has come up with rules and regulations to forbid freshly cleaned clothes from hanging on clotheslines in people’s back yards? It as though we have a great investment in hiding our dirty clothes from the world and in pretending we don’t ever need to clean and dry them. But isn’t that what so many of us do with our hearts and lives, come to think of it?

photo in background courtesy of canva.com

One of the greatest blessings I have found in my walk with the Lord, as hard and painful as it certainly can be at times, is in realizing and believing and acting upon the Truth that God wants us to bring our filthy sin to Him in true remorse and confession so He can wash us clean with His love and forgiveness. But the blessing doesn’t end there. God wants us to bring our dirty lives to others (James 5:16), too, so they can love, encourage, and pray for us, and help us wash our lives in the cleansing power of God’s Word.

I have at times as I have recently again found myself so soiled in sin that I have so desperately wanted to be free from that I have felt like that sopping, stinking load of laundry I had to pull out of the washer and foolishly dumped in the laundry basket until it was just about ruined. But rather than leave the mess in the basket, I have remembered God’s grace and mercy and shamefacedly, remorsefully, carried my heavy load of wrongdoing to Him. And I have as the Lord has led me shared my basket with others, thankful for their love, encouragement, and prayers. I have been tempted like others to dump the clean laundry in my dryer where nobody can see, but have decided despite the rules and regulations of this world to hang my freshly cleaned heart and life thanks to God’s forgiveness on a clothesline for all to see. Sure, I like the benefits of my air-dried life. But perhaps most importantly, I believe we need to stand together and remind one another that we ALL fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) – and that it is only through faith in Christ and His shed blood on the cross that we are wonderfully forgiven and can enjoy the delightful breeze and soaking sun that rests upon our hearts and lives because of God alone.

If you’ve been hiding your sin in the closet in a basket of stinking, soiled, laundry, repent of it and come into the light where God can wash you clean. 

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 

Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 


1Co_6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 

Please visit Walk by Faith Ministry at https://www.walkbyfaithministry.com.