The other day I was cleaning my house. With me, it usually starts with me doing one corner of the kitchen. Next thing I know, I am cleaning the baseboards. I notice the floor and clean the floor, notice the dust, and start dusting. Several hours later, I finished cleaning the whole house.

It all starts in one room. Most of the time it is the kitchen or the living room. As I thought about it on a deeper level than just the act of cleaning, I felt the Lord press upon me the importance of cleaning house in general. But not just my physical house, the spiritual one that resides inside my heart. It’s easy to clean or dust off the dirt we see on the outside or surface.  A little dirt from depression. A puddled mess from anger spilling over. A stubborn stain from leftover bitterness or resentment that has not gone away.

But what about the other places/rooms in our heart we have not considered? The ones left in the dark with a closed door. We often like to start with the obvious in the areas where we spend the most time like the kitchen or living room.  After all, those are the places – the faces that others will see and maybe even spend time in. 

It’s easy to hide our messes from others by stuffing them in a faraway closet or room away from everyone or everything else.  And when we hide it long enough, we tend to forget it’s even there until a memory accidentally opens the door.  If you are surrounded by people when this happens, you might quickly close that door, just as quickly as it was opened.  You make excuses, “I’m fine – it’s no big deal, it’s nothing.”  And that room is darkened again.

Things like physical and emotional trauma are often in a darkened room. Shame over an abortion, divorce, and failures are in another room. Perhaps disappointment, disillusionment, and frustrations take up another.  Losses are hard and often felt on the surface, but can have collateral damage in other areas of our life – loneliness, financial hardship, damaged dreams, anger, and more.

As I was sweeping my floors, I was reminded of several verses:

1 Corinthians 3:16   We are God’s temple.

1 John 1:5-10 “…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

Colossians 3:8-10   Clean house for God.

Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Proverbs 24:4 “By knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure.”

Psalms 10:4 “The wicked, in pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God.”

PRAYING:

I began praying, asking the Lord to sweep all the rooms in my heart clean. For him to shine his light in every room of my heart and make way – make space for him in every room.

Michael W. Smith has this line from a song he wrote which he also sings “Open the eyes of my heart Lord, so I can see you.” The song is based up Ephesians 1:18, where Paul writes a prayer to the people of Ephesus that God would enlighten them or open the eyes of their hearts so that they could see the hope we have in God’s inheritance and power.

DEEP CLEANING:

God’s light shines brightly and brings hope. Where there is light – there is no darkness because light has overcome it. (John 1)  What we can’t control, what we can’t bare to think or feel about something or someone again, what we don’t want to dredge up to the surface, however long it’s been, needs to be handed over to the One who can, the One who is able, and the One who is willing to take your burdens once and for all! 

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, the hurting, the dying (Luke 19:10). And while you may be born again and Spirit filled, we are reminded that we have a loving Father who is not willing to heal only part of you, or cleanse the easy parts, or bring you only so far as to leave you to wither away.  He desires to see you wholly clean, and whole inside and out. 

However, he is gentle, kind, and compassionate. He stands at the door and knocks, waiting to be let in your heart, in every room (Revelation 3:20).