In August 2010, I had an awakening of sorts and wrote a “blog” via Facebook Notes (see link below) about an experience I had with God setting me free some unnecessary baggage. In the time since that post it has been liberating to live free from emotional clutter, relational chaos and lack of organization.
Click here to read “Clean Home” from August 2010
the culprit and inspiration for this posting. ewww! |
Last week however, as I was cleaning out my refrigerator I found this shriveled up, rotting banana-> hidden at the back of the top shelf. The top shelf??? That’s the shelf that gets the most traffic! Twenty questions rushed through my mind in seconds. First I reacted in disgust (seriously, how gross is that?). Then I wondered, if anybody else had seen this and ignored it? How long was it in there? How did I miss it? What if I hadn’t cleaned the fridge, could this have contaminated the other food that was in there? Deep breath.
Then I remembered my clean closet story and my mind immediately went to my heart. I thought it’s been a while since I last did inventory, could there be any new rotten bananas in my heart? Then all the questions repeated again but this time I was examining my heart:
- Is there anything rotten in my heart that I’ve overlooked or neglected to detect? The answer, unfortunately was yes.
- Did anyone else see this thing and not tell me?
- How long have I been living with this?
- How did I miss it?
- Has this contaminated any other area of my life?
The Holy Spirit reminded me of Jeremiah 17:10; the Lord, searches the heart and examine the mind. We recently talked about this in our Bible Study group and this verse was still fresh in my mind when I saw that nasty banana. We can trust that God is going to bring to the surface the things that creep in and take up residence in our hearts when nobody is looking. We/I/you don’t have to live with the rotting remnants life (failures, heartaches, mistakes, broken hearts). And we don’t have to feel guilty about it either (Romans 8:1). Isn’t that great news?
I’ll leave you with this thought: God’s desire is for us to love Him with our whole heart (Deuteronomy 6:5) and for our hearts to be clean (pure) before Him. So why then don’t we allow Him to do some housekeeping on a regular basis so that we don’t suddenly find you’ve been walking around with rotten bananas (although, it happens to all of us). We’re also warned to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) so once you clean it out make sure you’re filling it with things that are building you up (like the Word and time in prayer etc) and not the things that are slowing you down (expired relationships, toxic thoughts etc). Can you do anything “whole-heartedly” if your heart is corroded with junk?
Psalm 51:9-12 9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 139:1-2, 23-24 1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 23 God, examine me and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any bad thing in me. Lead me on the road to everlasting life.
To take inventory all you have to do is ask the Holy Spirit, your “helper”, “teacher”, “guide” to show you if there’s anything muddying your waters (those of you who were at Christ Tabernacle’s Women’s Fellowship this past weekend will understand this) and then GET RID OF IT!
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Learning & Sharing as I journey to KNOW Him,
Diana
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Sonia Castillo says
I was talking about that topic with a friend the other night. Even spoke to her about David's prayer in Psalm 51. Thank you for such an awesome word. A reminder that we must search our hearts on a daily basis. Clean her…clear mind. By the way Psalm 139 is my favorite one.