Have you ever been put in this situation? It is a Sunday afternoon, you are getting ready to take a nap and the phone rings. Someone you haven't seen in years is just passing through town and would like to come by for a visit. You have been busy all weekend with the kids, dishes from lunch are in the sink, kid's clothes and toys are scattered from one end of the house to the other and they say, " We will be there in about 20 minutes" .
You hang up the phone, and immediately your body goes into emergency house cleaning mode. You are praying that they don't ask for a tour of the house. You only have time for cleaning what is visible and you ask, "why of all days, did they choose today to visit?" .
I remember when I was a child, mother was in the hospital for about a week. You can imagine what our house looked like, with Dad and the three of us boys there a week at home without Mom's supervision. It was a "Jesse Moment". Jesse lived down the road and if there was an Olympic game for the quickest house cleaning, I believe Jesse would win the gold metal. She would come in the door cleaning and we sure didn't need mother coming home to a dirty house. Dad would always go get her when we needed major house cleaning.
We all like to have a clean house when company comes. We don't want people to say that our house was a mess. Oh, the stress of what we think people may say about us when they leave. We always say this will never happen again then gradually we let this lay around or do not pick up that and the house needs a thorough cleaning again.
Most of the time we stress the importance of the externals, a clean house, car, shoes, windows, etc., but forget about the internal matters of the heart. In Matthew 23:24-26, Jesus reminded the Pharisees of this very thing. They had a heart, inside, problem and He stressed to them to first cleanse the inside, that the outside would be clean also.
In Psalms 51:10, David prayed for God to create a clean heart in him and renew a steadfast spirit within him. Why did David want God to create in him a clean heart? David had a weakness, the lust of the flesh, that led him to adultery with Bathsheba. (Read 2 Samuel 11:1-4) The 51st Psalm is a prayer of repentance from David to God. David knew his weakness and the thought in his heart that led him to sin against God. He wanted a clean heart, so those thoughts, which he still had in his mind, would never surface again to tempt him. Also, he wanted a steadfast spirit to help him control those thoughts.
The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Also, in Matthew 15:19, Christ says, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness and blasphemies." I now know why David wanted God to create in him a clean heart. He knew the internal battle he would have each day. He needed a clean heart and steadfast spirit to keep those past thoughts from tempting him again. Also, David valued his relationship with God. A relationship developed when he was young. When he strayed from God, he knew God well enough to confess to Him and go back to Him.
When we have a clean house, it makes us feel good. We are prepared for visitors. We have to do certain task each day to keep it that way. As mother would meet us at the door, "take those muddy shoes off before you come in the house", we must be gatekeepers of our own hearts, keeping out thoughts of the past, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
What if we, as a country, prayed to God , "Create a clean heart in us O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within us" ? What would begin to happen? What if you prayed this prayer? Would your life be different?
After writing this, I realized the thoughts generated by every day life can clutter up a clean heart. The TV and Internet are two main sources of making a clean heart dirty. As mother would not let us boys come into the house with muddy shoes, we should not let this filth come into our hearts.
Please pray that we all will desire clean hearts and steadfast spirits.
Please share this with others and send your comments to: rhepler52@yahoo.com or rhepler52@gmail.com .
We can't make a difference alone, but we can with God. He needs to know we want to make a difference. Pray! Pray! Pray!
Thanks for reading!
Rick Hepler
