I love how God orchestrates things. Yesterday, I wrote about spiritually cleaning house, clearing out the cobwebs, based on my own personal testimony. Today, in my morning devotions, God reveals exactly what must be done to clean out the cobwebs and what must be done to keep my spiritual house clean. How amazing is our God!
"He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith." Acts 15:9
In clearing out the spiritual cobwebs, we must first recognize that Christ is the One who cleans us from our sins. When we decided to follow Christ, we admitted our sins and recognized our need for Him. He cleaned up our hearts - the very core of our beings - washing away our sins.
"Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God." 2 Corinthians 7:1
Spiritual cleaning requires two things - turning AWAY from sin and turning TOWARD God. Though we can not cleanse ourselves from sin (that's what Christ does for us who turn to Him), we must cleanse our lives by CHOOSING to make a clean break from sin. To turn away from sin means we need to remove sinful habits, thoughts, and actions from our lives. We may even need to limit and even remove anyone who is a 'partner' in sin - those who tempt us to return to old sinful habits. When we turn to Christ, we are TURNING our backs on our sinful past and turning our faces towards a glorious new future. Sin has no place in our lives any longer. Turning from sin will require effort on our part. Old habits are sometimes hard to break. But we can break the hold sin has over our lives with Christ's help!
Once the spiritual cobwebs have been cleaned out, we are to work toward complete holiness. Working toward complete holiness means we are to mature in our faith! Though we will still mess up, stumble, and sin - our focus for this life has shifted from living it our way to living it God's way. Christ isn't Burger King - He's King of ALL kings - therefore you can't have it your way. Get over it. Besides, I've tried it my way before. It's overrated. Instead, we should strive to live Christlike lives. God has given us all the resources we need to do so.
"Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure." 1 John 3:3
Once the spiritual cobwebs have been cleaned out, not only are we to purge out anything that is unholy in our lives, we are to keep them out permanently! Our lives should be an ongoing process of growing more and more like Christ. In order to do so, we much CHOOSE to remain pure. To remain pure means to keep ourselve morally straight - keeping spiritually fit by: 1.) Not sharing in the sins of others (1 Timothy 5:22); 2.) Sincerely loving other believers; (1 Peter 1:22); and 3.) Coming close to God, purifying your hearts, giving God your complete loyalty (James 4:8). Our motivation for choosing to be morally pure should be our love for Christ. John 14:21 says, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." Our spiritual house remains clean when we actively love Christ by CHOOSING to do right instead of CHOOSING to sin.
Though God purifies us, we must do our part to keep the spiritual cobwebs out!
Additional Reading: John 13:1-17
What was Peter's request?
What is your request?
In His Love, Cathy
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