"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
As we are swiftly approaching summer I am in the process of spring cleaning. After much reluctance and delay, I’ve finally decided to get some things done around the house. You know, really clean, get into those hard to reach places, go deep and clean out those closets, get in the cracks and crevices of the cabinets, clean the carpet, sort through some stuff and see what has to go. It takes extra effort to do this detailed cleaning but I feel so much better when my house is in order.
Similarly, God wants us to get our spiritual lives in order. This also takes extra effort and careful examination. Just like when you go to see your doctor you must strip down so the doctor can carefully examine you, there’s a stripping that must take place for God to examine us as well. Though it is very uncomfortable it is necessary to get a proper diagnosis and remedy.
When the layers of the flesh are removed, the truest version of ourselves is revealed and it gives God something to work with. He can’t work with a counterfeit version of ourselves. We must present ourselves bare and honest before God and allow Him to perfect His work in us.
Sometimes what God has for us won’t be released until we let go of some things. There may be something you have been seeking God about and praying for but it won’t be released until He can trust you with it. How does He know that He can trust you? You must trust Him enough to let go of some things. Let that idol go, let worry go, let gossip go, let sin go, let your will go.
You must eagerly and aggressively go after God, seek Him in His Word and allow His Word to wash you and permeate into those cracks and crevices in your heart. Submit to the process of sanctification, taking off the old man, and putting on the new man in Christ Jesus.
Go through that spiritual closet and get rid of those things that don’ fit anymore. Those things that are just taking up space, weighing you down, stunting your spiritual growth, stagnating your intimacy with God, interrupting your peace, disturbing your joy, blocking your vision, and delaying your God-given purpose and destiny. Make room for more of God. God wants to get us to a new level of intimacy in Him. For that to happen we must be cleansed of the old to usher in the new.
I encourage you to press into God’s heart, and seek Him with all your heart. His goal is to get us to a place of absolute surrender to Him and abandonment of our own agenda. We can’t just clean the outside of the cup, we must clean the inside first, then the outside will be clean as well. (Matthew 23:26) Yes, inside out. The in-working of the Holy Spirit will manifest the outworking of the fruits of the spirit. The more we are washed the more we exude Jesus, the more we are pleasing to Him, the more we are fit for the Master’s use, and He gets the glory.
