House Cleaning

Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Colossians 3: 10

I remember as a girl, when Mother hired a cleaning lady to do her annual Spring cleaning, she would clean house first. Say what? She didn’t want any extraneous things lying about to impede the cleaning process. I am not so diligent as Mother, but I realized I am no longer able to do the big total deep cleaning I used to do, including windows. …and I love to wash windows. I do! I hired a cleaning service, and how beautiful they made my house. The only problem: by the time I had lived in my pristine environment another hour after they left, my house already started to look smirched, smeared, and stained. I need to clean up after myself and do routine maintenance cleaning. Of course the condition of my home brought to mind my spiritual life.

Yes, Jesus died and rose from the dead to remove the guilt of my sin forever. I didn’t even have to clean up my act before He reached into my sinful heart. No. No longer am I condemned to a Godless eternity and horrors of hell. I am redeemed. He atoned for all my sins. Forever. Like my clean house, however, I have lingering inner flaws to besmirch me with hardhearted, unkind, proud, rude, impatient attitudes. These attitudes smear me with uncaring, accusing, and complaining actions. Such actions stain me with the mindset of the world about me: passions, possessions, and power struggles. I need to put on a “new self” day by day by day… Okay, minute by minute.

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3: 12-14

Another thing about homes: the older they are, the more scars they bear. I look about me and see in this more than forty-year old house, chipped plaster, gouged woodwork, settling cracks—just inside. The outside has its own issues. I, too, have issues going back to before Jesus changed my heart. Those scars remain, but never does He hold the scars against me. Thank you, thank you, LORD.

Challenge: Start with God’s Word every day; assess your attitudes, motives, and actions throughout the day; end the day with gratitude to Jesus for saving you. If you have not turned to Jesus to save you, He is ready to listen to you.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, show me the day by day stains in my life so I may confess and forsake them, for Jesus sake, and in His name, Amen.

Sinner’s Prayer: God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me. I believe Jesus took my sins upon Himself, died in my place, and rose again to give me life anew. Amen

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