Spring Cleaning
Have you ever had a good “Spring Cleaning?” Many of us do that once a year. And if not, we will do it every two or three years, and it is always a huge job.
We collect all kinds of stuff throughout the year, or in some cases, years. Our house gets full, the garage gets full, the storage buildings get full and something has to give. Garage sales soar during the spring because people are cleaning out and making room to get around more comfortably in the house.
If it were not so much work, spring cleaning would be really fun. You get to find stuff you have had for a long time and wondered whatever happened to it. But, work or not, it is necessary if we want to have room enough for the “good stuff”.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5 pretty much told the church that it was time for a house cleaning among them. They were allowing things to go on that were totally against the principles of God. He reminds them that the trash in their house is infectious. It will work its way into your life and destroy you. Listen to him say these things;
(6) Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? (7) Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (8) Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
The Scriptures are chocked full of things like this. You hear much in the New Testament about “putting off” the bad ways and “putting on” the good. Clean the house of rubbish and allow that which is good to flourish.
God wants to work among us and He loves a clean house. Though thought to be scripture, “Cleanliness is next to godliness” is only an extracted principle and not actually a verse, it could very well fit in the context of Scripture.
God has mighty plans for us and if our lives are cluttered with ways that prevent us from moving freely in His will, we must do some house cleaning. We all have our treasures and we all have our trash. The treasures can trip us up if we trust in them, but the trash will most certainly cripple us in walking in the Sovereign will of God.
Now, should we decide to get rid of the junk in our lives, let’s not have a garage sale with it. There is enough evil in the world without us passing any of ours along to others.
We are the House of God and God does love a clean house. As a matter of fact, He sent His Son to give us the means to be clean.
Perhaps it is time for a “Spring Cleaning” in something other than the garage and the attic. We would do well to pursue this task.