CLEAN INSTALL


Early last year, with no warning, the computer I was upgrading shut off. My insides screamed, “No, no, no, no!” while on the outside I somehow maintained a relatively calm composure. Silently, I begged for a favor from God to bring the computer back to life. I hit the power button and held my breath. Nothing. I slammed the side of the PC, made sure the memory modules were secure, shook it around a bit and tried again. The glorious sound of the computer turning on chimed through the speakers. “It’s alive!” I screamed in triumph. Quickly, I backed up all of data. But it didn’t last long. Within a few minutes, the computer died once again.

To fix the computer, I had to delete everything on the computer and reformat the hard drive then preform a clean install of the operating system back onto the hard drive. After reloading the original software, I added the personal files I had saved. As I did, I couldn’t help but think about the way God preforms a clean install on us when we crash.

God molds us, and designs us. He gives us each some similar components, making us in His image. Then, He goes beyond creating carbon copies. He gives each of us a little of this, a bit of that—those things that make us unique—something like the personal drivers and varieties of software and files we add to make each of our computers unique.

In a way that also reminds me of computers, people often get overloaded with information, worry, struggles and, of course, we all get infected with that nasty virus we call sin. These problems will cause trouble in your life and without the right remedy, you will crash. Fortunately, your remedy, Jesus Christ, is always there for you with open arms, ready to help troubleshoot your problem areas. God is always available to repair and restore your soul. When you seek Him, He comes to put the pieces back together. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering…” (Romans 8:1-3).

Each of us has our own set of struggles, sins and failures. Isn’t it great to know that Jesus has already paid the price to have us cleaned up? He has paid the full price. He is waiting for each of us to ask Him to repair our souls.

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