Beautiful Floors

As an ex-cabinet builder/woodworker, I have an appreciation for and enjoy natural wood colors and grains, especially walnut and oak. I like the highlights of natural black walnut and I like the variety of grains and colors found in natural oak flooring. Just yesterday from this writing, my wife and I discovered the floors under the carpeted portions of the residence we purchased three years ago are white oak flooring. Having just recently helped my daughter refinish an oak floor room in her residence, that turned out absolutely beautiful, I was excited to know what we could do with these floors. Bottom line, if we want to pay the price we can move all the furniture and stuff and do it ourselves. Or, we can pay for a professional to come in and them do it all while we are somewhat displaced for a spell (it is several days process). The benefits are that we can get rid of this old dirty carpet and have beautiful hardwood floors that we can enjoy every day. The carpet will continue to get old and dirty (even if cleaned every day). The question is: Are we willing to pay the price for the benefits available? The Word says God loads us with benefits daily (Psalms 68:19; 103:2; 116:12). By what Jesus Christ did for us, many benefits are available to us to enjoy. What is the price we must pay to have and enjoy them? One benefit is of forgiveness of sin. Our sins don’t just go away with time. We must take ownership of what we have done before God and bring them to him, turning from them, and releasing and exchanging them for the cleansing blood that Jesus shed for us in payment of those sins. There is the benefit of living in the supernatural power of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. When we take ownership of our need of his power and ask in faith and yield our lives to him, he fills us with his power. For parents, there is the promise of raising children in a godly way (several guiding verses in Proverbs). When we do what the Word says concerning training and disciplining and living a good example before them, they become responsible adults (you don’t find any “time out” in the Word). There is a price we must pay to receive all God’s provisions in these areas and in many other areas, but if we do our part, we get to enjoy the benefits all the days of our lives. The spiritual “floor” we are walking on in our lives is in direct correspondence to our faith in and obedience to the Word of God. If “pay the price” of believing it, speaking it, and acting on it in a consistent manner, as a lifestyle, then we receive the benefits to enjoy. Bottom line: Are we willing to pay the price for the benefits available?