Faith and Hope, Water and Soap;
And What the Heck is an Agitator?

How many of you can relate to the following story? Saturday morning arrives, and mounds of laundry along with it. You have just returned home from a short trip to the in-laws. Although the trip was only a few days long, you would never know it by the mounds of dirty clothes waiting to be washed in the hamper. You load a bundle of laundry in the machine, put in the soap, turn on the water, and close the lid. Shortly afterward, you notice something is not working here. You open the lid again, only to notice the machine isn't churning. You call the repairman who, upon inspecting the machine tells you that your agitator isn't working properly. Your response is, WHAT THE HECK IS AN AGITATOR? The repairman tells you that the agitator is the part of the machine that works your soap and water through the clothes. Ahh, so that's what an agitator is.

An agitator stirs things up, works through the mix and gets the things clean. That washing machine needs the agitator to get the clothes clean, water and soap alone won't do it, there has to be a stirring up of the soap and water to get the stains and filth out. The same is true for our lives. If we claim salvation, but never work it through our lives, we stagnate in our ways. We never get those old habits out of our lives, we simply let them soak with us, and that just makes for dirty water.

So what is the agitator in our spiritual lives? The Holy Spirit, that thing which brings the voice of Jesus up in our hearts and motivates us to do what we should is our agitator. The part of us that tells us to get out and volunteer and give of ourselves, that part that says to abstain from our sinful past, that part that reminds us to praise God everyday for His goodness. That is the Holy Spirit. God's voice in our hearts, our whispering conscience that stirs our souls and makes us want to obey Him, to do works for him, to love our brothers, to tithe and give our all for Jesus name sake.

Faith and hope live in us and unless we allow it to work through us, and we put ourselves to work for Him, it will not grow. Isn't our biggest mission to spread His love and His message to the world? If we live our lives with the attitude of I am saved, yet we don't tune in to the Holy Spirit, we aren't really living for God, are we? There is more to salvation than simply accepting the gift. There is a responsibility that comes with it, which becomes more and more a joy, and less a responsibility once we come to know Christ. Living a life that witnesses through our deeds, and spreading the message of Jesus with others is something all of us as Christians need to be doing. I don't say this to be lecturing to all of those reading, but more of a reminder to myself and you all that our gift of salvation should kindle in us a desire to do what our Lord wants us to do. One of those things is to share the gospel.

I hope this silly little analogy makes you smile. And I hope it motivates you to listen and do that which the Holy Spirit is telling you that you should. Now whether that is abandoning old habits that are sinful, or whether it is serving your community in missions, or whether it is simply getting up and going to church on Sundays mornings, that is for you to interpret. I know I've got some work to do, now that I have heard my agitator.

[ by: Robin Eaton -- submitted by: Robin Eaton (motherof3writer@hotmail.com) ]