Dancing in the Light

I John 1:7 "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."

Name:
Location: North Platte, Nebraska, United States

I am a christian wife, mother and grandmother. I am a licensed Social worker and a licensed Christian counselor. I am most proud of the relationships I have with God, my family and friends all over the world. I have been blessed beyond my dreams.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Spring Cleaning

The pristine snow of winter's beauty has taken its leave. It has been replaced by rich green grass carpeting the earth, begging barefoot play. The plants and trees are heavy with tiny buds promising fragrant beauty in the near future. And everyday, we are awakened by the songs of beautiful winged creatures whose seasonal job is to herald the springtime. Winter is gone and Spring is here.
Every year, many of us take this seasonal change as an opportunity to do some Spring cleaning. We wash windows, flip mattresses, oil cabinets, vacuum under beds, shampoo carpets and clean drapes. We wash, wipe, dust, and clean everything as if our mother in law was coming to visit! From past experience we know how wonderful it will feel when it is done. We know the pleasure that will be ours when we wake up to a house so clean one could eat off the floor. We know how we come to enjoy the smell of Pine-sol, Windex and Pledge. We like that we would not be embarrassed if any unannounced guest showed up. We also know that just like every other Spring, we will make a resolution that "this time, we are going to keep it this clean".
Perhaps we all need to a little spiritual spring cleaning. Perhaps we need to take a real and honest inventory and clean up a little. First we need to cleanse our hearts. We need to identify our sins and weaknesses, and ask God to help us, ask a brother or sister to help us, to pray for us and then surrender to God's workings in our life. We may have to lift up some rugs to see what sins we have been hiding under there and then with God's help sweep those sins out the door rather than in a corner or under another rug. We also need to iron out any problems we have in our relationships. Whether the wrinkle is our doing or the doing of the other party, we need to put forth the effort to smooth out the wrinkles. Then we need to de-clutter. There are so many things, so many possession, so many activities in our lives that many of us find it difficult to "find" time to spend with God. We cannot have an intimate relationship with Him if we don't spend time with Him. He should be our top priority. We need to sweep away all anger, bitterness and envy from our hearts. Those emotions leave a sticky film on every conversation and every interaction. We must get rid of them. This will require liberal use of forgiveness and forbearance. Most of us see the world through our own filters. ( I am working on a post about this for a later date). Our filters are made up of knowledge and life experience. They are the windows through which we view the world, the church and the Father. If our filter is smeared and smudged or out of focus, we will have a distorted view of everything. So, we need to wash some windows. We need to spend time in God's Word to insure we are seeing clearly and keeping life in focus. Finally we need to dust off our Bibles and get back into the Word. Only in His book will we ever find the plan for keeping our heart clean.
Spiritual spring cleaning is very important. Important because we do have a houseguest. We are hosting Deity. He lives in us and our hearts and minds need to be clean and ready for Him. This may require getting down on our knees. It may require elbow grease and effort. It may require help from other Christians. Spiritual spring cleaning may require all of that---but the effort will be worth it. A clean house is healthy, germs (sin) can't abide here. A clean house is calming, stress stays outside. A clean house is welcoming, goodness and light can thrive here. A clean house is necessary. Where sin lives, God will not. Light and darkness cannot co-exist in the same home. Friends, lets all welcome this change of season, welcome it as a time of new birth, a time of growth, and a time to clean up the place of the heart.

Peace
Neva

Hab. 2:20 "But the Lord is in His holy temple . . . "

19 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Neva for this post that makes me think and apply what you have wrote to myself. This is an uplifting post for me because it spurs me to think about my own personal soul cleaning needs and urges me to look into the areas where I certainly need improvement.

your inspiration in my mind makes me think I can do better and be more of what my Savior wants in all areas of my life's journey so at this time I ask for your prayers for me and I will say my prayers for you too so we both benefit from our endeavours together.

much love and God's holy blessings for you.
madalyn

11:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't anyone who can paint a better word picture. I've been feeling the urge to do spring cleaning but I think that my spiritual spring cleaning is the priority. Thanks for the insight and the reminder.

Love,
Tammy

11:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the comment, a clean house is peaceful or calm, stress stays outside.
You are so right, when mylife is on track with God, my life has much less stress. Thank you for this nudge.
Blessings
Pat

12:59 PM  
Blogger Beba said...

Yes, i think so too. I need that general cleaning of those things you numbered. Thank you for support! Have a nice weekend
Love
Beba

3:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like the analogy. I love the phrase, "hosting deity". I never thought about it like that. Pretty neat

Karli

5:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I loved this post. It made me look at myself a little closer.

6:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are millions of different products to spring clean our house but we only need the Bible to spring clean our soul.

love ya
Carol

9:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Neva,
I have thought about this picture before and have often wondered why we put so much into preparing for company and nothing or little into preparing for the most important houseguest of all--Jesus Christ.
Rachel

10:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We all need to clean up our lives. He cleaned our souls once and now we should try to keep dirt from getting on it again.

10:37 PM  
Blogger The Preacher's Household: said...

yeah right we'll keep it clean. We intend to but sin creeps in, just like the clutter.
J

We spent all day cleaning out a storage unit. Sometimes this could represent the clutter and baggage we need a clean sweep of, purifying our hearts.
Kathy

12:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Neva,
you are right, sometimes just cleaning out the cobwebs of tradition and "we've always done it this way" makes our hearts much more inhabitable.

Dan

6:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How did you know I planned on spring cleaning this weekend? Guess I need to put some spiritual cleaning on my list.
Thanks for the post Neva

Jean

8:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hate spring cleaning!! :)

Carlos

5:46 PM  
Blogger Monalea said...

You have such a way of looking at things. Thank you for sharing!

Monalea

7:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with Carlos, I hate cleaning of any kind. but I know this needs to be done, especially the spirtiual cleaning.
good post today

Dean

7:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been thinking about you so much lately. Wondering how the two of you are doing what with the mess in Nebraska right now. I hope you are doing well and please know that we pray for you always.
Jeneane

9:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want to be clean and full of light so that the Holy Spirit feels comfortble in my heart. Just like God, He can'tbe wherer there is sin and darkness either. This is a good post, Neva. thanks

Mary

9:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a right spirit within me. "

Amen

Lyndsay

1:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wonderful post! Thanks for sharing!

-Martin.

2:11 PM  

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