One of things that you see throughout Ecuador is how they do laundry. Most Ecuadorian homes and even hotels have a concrete roof where they have an area that they hand wash their dirty clothes and lines where they air dry their laundry. As I was looking at the many roofs covered in clothes that were air drying laundry the verse that came to my mind was, “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Those with clean hands and a pure heart.” (Psalms)
The hill of the Lord is the place where God abides. Scripture says to even be where God abides we must wash our dirty laundry. Literally we must take our sin to the wash area and turn on the water – which is the word of God. This is the place we allow the Word of God to begin cleansing us from wrong attitudes, wrong motives, and passive sin we have allow to take residence in our lives.
Earlier I mentioned that the Ecuadorians after they have washed their dirty laundry would hang their laundry out to dry. This is where we experience the presence of God. This is the place where we are refreshed, peace enters in places in our lives where there seems to be chaos, and we are brought back to the fullness of life for the Masters use. Scripture teaches us that in His presence is fullness of joy.” (Psalms) I have seen this take place over and over again in my life. I have seen lives refreshed as individuals have surrendered themselves to God in worship and times of prayer. This leads to a question for us…how do you refresh on a regular basis to stay strong and useful for the Master’s use?
I remember as a child my parents didn’t have a dryer for our wet laundry. There were many times I had to go outside and hang up clothes and then after allowing them to air dry, I would have to take they down to be folded and them worn. The value of purifying and refreshing ourselves is to come down from the mountain of the Lord to be used by God to transform those around us. To be encouragement to those who need courage to keep going in life – these individuals have the courage because they have seen you live out something during hard times in your life and now they have hope that they can do it too. To be a light in a dark world- these individuals express what God is doing in their personal lives to a world that are far away from God.
The purpose of the hill is not to live there, but to be refreshed and live out your faith with all of your heart. So that we can motivate others and be used by God to help others as they are on this journey we call life.
