For a month I let it sit on the counter in my bathroom. Even after I finally broke its seal I would only twist the cap and pour my serving "when the mood struck". Every other morning and night I would brush my teeth and then resolutely turn around and walk away from that beckoning bottle of Listerine. Occasionally I stared at the bottle and thought to myself how odd it was that it always seemed to be full.

One night, when I finished brushing my teeth, something didn't seem right. I had brushed so thoroughly, I thought I might be crossing into OCD. My teeth were clean, but they didn't feel pure. They didn't feel like they did just before my last bottle of Listerine had run out. That night, out of concern for losing even a single consituent of my pearly whites, I decided to commit myself to the recommended 30 seconds of swishing at every brushing. Since then, I have been faithful in my committment and my teeth have never felt better. I've even noticed the level in the bottle drop!

One night, as I was swishing away, I realized that my spiritual life over the past few years has been a lot like that bottle of Listerine. By dying on the cross for me, Jesus bought my Salvation and when I accepted that gift, I put it on the shelf, ready to use it for my cleansing. But then I just let it sit there, staring at it every day, twice a day, sometimes even more. Often times I wondered to myself, "why is God not increasing in my life?". Ultimately I determined it was because I was not decreasing. I was letting my Salvation sit on the shelf, staring at it everyday waiting for something to happen but never opening my heart to that "thing". I had received the gift, but never truly accepted it. I wasn't using it daily to purify and cleanse me. So, just like that bottle of Listerine, I had to commit myself to faith; to coming before God daily and allowing Him to cleanse and purify me. And wouldn't you know, since then I've noticed the level of self-reliance and self-righteousness drop. I have been decreasing while God has been increasing.

And so the point of all this gibberish is to encourage you - that if you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, don't stop there, don't let your Salvation sit on a shelf. Allow God to come into your life and cleanse you because you can't do it alone. You can brush as hard and as much as you want to, and you can buy the fanciest toothbrush that money can buy and it still won't find those places that Listerine can. The same thing is true for your spiritual life. You have to allow God in and start decreasing so that He may increase. In Psalm 139, David writes:

²³ Search me, O God and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; ²⁴ And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23-24

This is my prayer for all of us today.