GRITS IN YOUR CELL PHONE

Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Sitting at breakfast at my aunt's table we had a platter of fried eggs, sausage and red eye gravy, homemade biscuits and a large steaming bowl of grits. Everyone was just getting seated and I had my cell phone open showing a picture of one of my grandchildren. My aunt, seated across the table, asked to see it and I passed it over the table. It slipped from my hand and landed right in the bowl of hot grits. It was quickly retrieved and both telephone and grits were saved. The phone was cleaned up and seemed to be fine. Everyone got a laugh.

As the week went on my phone calls seemed to have a problem. I could hear the person on the receiver just fine but no one was able to hear me. I attributed it to poor reception in the area, as we were out of state. The problem persisted for the remainder of the trip.

Only after returning home did I take the phone apart and discover that there were grits in the small mouthpiece which prevented my voice from being heard by the party on the other end of the line. After a good cleaning it worked as good as new.

I thought of this verse in Psalm 66, among others, which warn me to keep the line clean between myself and the Lord. Sometimes when I can hear Him, He does not hear me because I have "grits" in my "prayer phone". There is some sin, maybe seemingly small, keeping the line blocked.

I need to examine myself and then claim the promise found in 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I must confess my sin and restore communication and fellowship with my Lord.

Let me encourage you to keep the grits out of your cell phone and sin out of your prayer line.
J. F. B. 12/24/12