What do you think of when you think of salt water? Perhaps you think of the beach, of friend and sand and fun in the sun. Maybe it's the cynic in me, or possibly too many science courses, but when I think of salt water I think of many of its more negative properties. Salt water is corrosive and leaves many undesirable mineral buildups. It is unfit to drink, and requires filtration through expensive purification systems in order to become usable for drinking or washing. It can sometimes leave a slimy film on one's skin if bathed in, and is difficult to remove with normal soaps. Salt and water combined is not really a very desirable combination.
Our lives can be thought of as saltwater, in a way. The water is our life the way it is supposed to be - clean, pure, unadulterated. But then all this salt, all of this other yucky stuff, gets added to the mix and clouds up the picture. The salt can symbolize many things - our past, our insecurities, our mistakes, our regrets, our flaws - but whatever it symbolizes, the point is that it has made our lives not as pure or as healthy as they could be.
If you look at salt and water separately, however, you see a very different picture. In the Bible, we see many uses of salt. It was used as a preserver, and as a way to flavor and season bland foods. It was sometimes given as an offering to the Lord at the temple. Even to this day, it is eaten in many cultures as a sign of friendship. In other words, salt by itself is a very good thing.
You may feel like your life is just a pool of saltwater, murky and cloudy and unfit for anything good. Your past failures and insecurities may seem so impossibly insurmountable and overwhelming, that there's no way you do ever do something useful for God's kindgom. But God wants to separate the salt from the water in your life. He wants to give you a new lease on life, one in which even your flaws and failures can be used to give light to others and to showcase His power in your life.
In 2 Kings 2, we even see an instance of God actually using salt to heal diseased water. What a beautiful picture of redemption. Not only does God heal the water - He does it by making it salt water. God doesn't expect you to come to Him without a past, without hurts, without things that you can't imagine ever overcoming. He just wants you to come to Him. He can purify you. He can make you new. He can take your murky saltwater, and turn it into cleansing water and healing salt. Will you let Him?
Our lives can be thought of as saltwater, in a way. The water is our life the way it is supposed to be - clean, pure, unadulterated. But then all this salt, all of this other yucky stuff, gets added to the mix and clouds up the picture. The salt can symbolize many things - our past, our insecurities, our mistakes, our regrets, our flaws - but whatever it symbolizes, the point is that it has made our lives not as pure or as healthy as they could be.
If you look at salt and water separately, however, you see a very different picture. In the Bible, we see many uses of salt. It was used as a preserver, and as a way to flavor and season bland foods. It was sometimes given as an offering to the Lord at the temple. Even to this day, it is eaten in many cultures as a sign of friendship. In other words, salt by itself is a very good thing.
You may feel like your life is just a pool of saltwater, murky and cloudy and unfit for anything good. Your past failures and insecurities may seem so impossibly insurmountable and overwhelming, that there's no way you do ever do something useful for God's kindgom. But God wants to separate the salt from the water in your life. He wants to give you a new lease on life, one in which even your flaws and failures can be used to give light to others and to showcase His power in your life.
In 2 Kings 2, we even see an instance of God actually using salt to heal diseased water. What a beautiful picture of redemption. Not only does God heal the water - He does it by making it salt water. God doesn't expect you to come to Him without a past, without hurts, without things that you can't imagine ever overcoming. He just wants you to come to Him. He can purify you. He can make you new. He can take your murky saltwater, and turn it into cleansing water and healing salt. Will you let Him?
2 Kings 2:19-22
19 The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” 20 “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” 22 And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken. 
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