Clean, Clean, Clean

Do you ever get in the mood to just clean and clean and clean, and you can't stop? That was me this weekend. I cleaned every room in my four bedroom/2 bath house, including the garage...and it felt good!!

More than cleaning the physical house in my life, it's been important to me to clean the spiritual house within me. Just as I walk around my physical house looking for what needs to be cleaned, I've allowed God to walk around the rooms of my heart and clean it up...

The commitments I made at the beginning of the year is where it all began. As I've spent more and more time with the Lord, I've found that cleaning the rooms of my heart has been very important in my walk and desire to grow closer to the Lord.

Just as I often put off REALLY cleaning up my house - the areas that just aren't any fun to clean - we can do the same thing with our spiritual house. Have you ever had someone show up at your house unexpectedly, and you ran through the house stuffing things in the closets or under the bed? Do you realize we can do that same thing with God? He shows up at the door of our heart, and we tell him, "hold on just a minute" and we frantically shove the things that we don't want him to deal with us about to the bottom of our heart.

BUT, you know the feeling that follows getting your house clean? That feeling of accomplishment? Or, how you wish people would unexpectly show up now that the house is clean...that they would have seen it clean not dirty? Nothing compares, not even the cleaning of our physical houses, to being right with God, and allowing Him to clean up the rooms of our heart. I can't even begin to explain the joy and refreshing that has fallen on my life as I've surrendered everything to the Lord, since I've allowed Him to walk through my life and say, "Laura, you should look here and under here and do some dusting here."

Today in worship I felt connected to God in such a way that had he taken me to heaven in that moment I might not have even noticed. My heart was completely full and I was crying out, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY", and there was absolutely nothing else sharing that spot in my heart during that time. He had my whole heart. The house is clean, and though I might have to clean it again tomorrow, I thank the Lord for today and the time in His presence. I thank Him for knocking on the door of my heart, and for loving me enough to help me clean up the dirty spots in my life. I thank Him for loving me even despite the dirty carpet or dusty shelves, and, for many years ago, washing me white as snow!