For over four months I have noticed this one spot on my kitchen floor that will not go away. I sweep... it stays. I mop with a floor cleaner.....it stays. I let it soak...then scrub with the little scrubber thingee on the back of the sponge mop....it stays. I even used comet...with some water...let it stand...then scrubbed with the thingee again...it stayed. I had decided it was a cut in the vinyl and it would not leave. I simply decided to "live with it."

Then, today it is raining and I don't want to go anywhere else…....I simply want to stay here….enjoying it all. There is nothing like a storm….all windows open, winds whipping wonderfully throughout, and the sweet sounds of rain falling all around me....even have both doors propped open to be enveloped inside the rain, so to speak. That is something to share, so I thought I would share this storm with you.

I mopped the floor again. And I lost out to the spot.  However, I decided it had been there long enough. I got a steak knife [I'm a guy...I use whatever is handy] and
then I got down on my hands and knees. Boy that stuff, whatever it was, really was embedded into the surface of the vinyl. But I leaned way over, took the pointy
edge of the knife and scraped really hard on just the spotty stuff. And guess what? It came right up. And to think all that time this one spot was on my floor.  Although others could readily see it, I had simply accepted it, put up with it and gotten used to it. It didn't bother me anymore.

Well, there I was, still on my knees, having successfully removed the spot, and feeling a great deal of accomplishment I must say, when I realized that in my personal life there are spots that I have tried working on, prayed for, asked others to pray for....yet the spots were still there. I looked for change...but didn't see it......so I got used to them. Just like on my kitchen floor.

Then something came into view.....in my mind's eye.  Sometimes I need to get down on my hands and knees simply in obedience to God telling me to do so at certain times. And I should pray, seeking God's face in a still deeper, maybe quieter time of fellowship with him than usual....being more attentive to his voice.

Maybe this happens to you, too. In my sometimes haste to pray and in those times when I don’t spend as much time as I should spend in the word with the Lord, I
find myself not giving him enough time. It just seems to happen. When you and I are in constant daily communion with God, we will know when he wants us there....down on our knees...or with him longer.

Time with him is the most important time of every day.  In prayer and in studying his word, David may have stated it best when he wrote, “With my whole heart have I sought you; O don’t let me wander from your commandments. I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you. Praise you, O Lord;
teach me your decrees…..I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees and I will not neglect your word.” Psalm 119:10-12, 15-16

When you and I are seeking God's face and leading for our lives, we will know when he desires us to 'dig deeper' into our souls. When we re to lift up things to
him which we have glossed over...things in our own lives which we have become accustomed to and things which maybe we do not think important since we are used to them being simply a spot on the floor of our lives.  However, God says to get rid of them....they are a stain to his desires for our lives.

This is not a ‘cure-all’ for getting answers every time. I don’t think there is a guaranteed snap-quick way of getting something answered immediately from God.  There is no 1, 2, 3 step program. It takes a lot of prayer, searching the word, and lots of patience.

Sometimes so much that a person may think that they have made so many withdrawals on the World Bank of Patience that all the patience is gone. God’s supplies
never run out. “But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to God and our Father is glory forever and ever.  Amen.”  Philippians 4:19-20

I encourage you to never, ever give up on receiving God’s answers. He always listens and always cares. He loves each and every one of us the same. Just don’t
forget to look around your floor to check for those old spots you may not notice any more. There may be one or two that will take getting down on your hands and
knees, you know.

©warren powell 2002/05/19
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