Spring Cleaning of the Heart

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast Spirit within me." - Psalm 51:10

So, I began a huge project in our "front room" of our house. It is the formal living room, but we use it for many purposes. it is the home office, library, piano room, and part of the kids' play area housing their desks. This room also has a fireplace that, until recently, was covered up by boxes of papers that needed to be sorted and either filed or thrown away. I had been asking my husband for help for ages, but the project remained untouched.

So...I took it on and began the purging of our front room. As I was going through years and years of accumulated "stuff", I couldn't help but see an analogy to my heart. in the same way we had quickly shoved stuff into boxes to "go through later", I have to also put my emotions or hurt feelings or anger into boxes to be gone through later.

But you see, those boxes just get shifted around from place to place and even gather more stuff in them. Those boxes began to multiply in number so much so that they were beginning to encroach upon our space. They had become an eyesore, bothersome, and cumbersome. To accomplish anything, I first had to shift those boxes around, and then move them back.

So it is also with my heart...as I put emotions into boxes to be gone through later, my heart becomes very cluttered and burdened. I crowd it with years of built up "stuff" and make it difficult to maneuver around inside it.

As I sorted through those boxes, I sast contemplating the spiritual meaning behind it. I must have filled 10 or more garbage bags with stuff and shredded papers. I threw away 4 cardboard boxes once emptied. I marveled at the sheer amount of trash that we had been holding onto for so long until "we went through it later". And then I thought about what God wants for our hearts.

We all need to sort through our hearts. it is my feeling that God does not want us to hold onto things until a later date. just as our front room had become cluttered and a burden to clean around, so too can our hearts become cluttered and burdened.

In order to clean, i had to add extra effort to the process to shift boxes back and forth. In the same way can our "boxes" in our hearts create extra work for us. We have to carry them around, move them to make room for other things, and we may even forget what all of them were for to begin with. They begin to crowd out the good and positive things.

I can't imagine that our Heavenly Father would want us to unnecessarily burden ourselves. He wants us to regularly clean out the boxes in our hearts and let go of some stuff and maybe even get rid of some of the boxes! We need to routinely do some sorting and filling and throwing away. just as our front room needs to be regularly sorted through, so too do our hearts. Because let's face it, if I do not keep up with that front room, it will very quickly return to its previous condition. If we do not routinely cleanse our hearts, they too will return to their previous states.

Psalm 51:7-12
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore me to the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

It's our Lord's desire for His children to meet him daily for our clean-up. We don't have to do it alone; we need only ask for His helping hand. So before i become crowded out with cluttered boxes of unsorted emotions and events, i will visit my Father for a little reorganizing and cleansing. Will you?