Spiritual Spring Cleaning
Spring Clean Your Spirit
From Mary Fairchild,
Your Guide to Christianity - General.
How to Spring Clean Your Spirit
While you're cleaning out closets and sweeping under the furniture, think about this: Spring cleaning, while worth the effort, will only last for a season, but spiritual cleansing could have an eternal influence. So don't just dust behind those book shelves, dust off that favorite Bible and get ready for a spiritual spring cleaning.
1) Cleanse Your Heart - Get Spiritually Healthy:
The Bible encourages us to draw close to God and allow our hearts and bodies to be cleansed. This is the first step in our spring cleaning project. We can't clean ourselves. Instead we must draw near to God and ask Him to do the cleansing.
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (KJV)
Hebrews 10:22
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full ***urance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (NIV)
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (NKJV)
2) Clean Out Your Mouth - Deep Clean Inside and Out:
Spiritual cleansing requires deep cleaning -- it is housekeeping that goes beyond what others see and hear. It's a cleansing from within -- inside and out. As your heart gets clean, your language should follow. This is not just talking about bad language, but also negative talk and pessimistic thoughts that contradict the Word of God and faith. This includes the challenge to stop complaining.
Luke 6:45
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (NIV)
Philippians 2:14
Do everything without complaining or arguing... (NIV)
3) Renew Your Mind - Take Out the Garbage:
This is one of the biggest areas of struggle for most of us -- removing the garbage from our minds. Garbage in equals garbage out. We must feed our minds and spirits the Word of God instead of the garbage of this world.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (NIV)
4) Repent from Hidden Sin - Clean Out Your Spiritual Closets:
Hidden sin will destroy your life, your peace, and even your health. The Bible says to confess your sin - tell someone, and reach out for help. When your spiritual closets are clean, the heaviness from hidden sin will lift.
Psalm 32:3-5
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"—and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (NIV)
5) Release Unforgiveness and Bitterness - Get Rid of Old Baggage:
Any sin will weigh you down, but long kept unforgiveness and bitterness is like that old baggage in the attic you just can't seem to part with. You are so familiar with it, you don't even realize how it is hindering your life.
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. (NLT)
Ephesians 4:31-32
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and comp***ionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (NIV)
6) Involve Jesus in Your Daily Life - Let the Son Shine In:
What God wants most from you is relationship -- friendship. He wants to be involved in the big and the small moments of your life. Open up your life, let the light of God's presence shine into every part of your life, and you'll have no need for a yearly spiritual spring cleaning. Instead you'll experience daily, hourly, moment to moment refreshing of your spirit.
1 Corinthians 1:9
God ... is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (NLT)
Psalm 56:13
For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light. (NLT)
7) Learn to Laugh at Yourself and at Life:
Some of us take life too seriously, or we take ourselves too seriously. Jesus wants you to enjoy yourself, and learn to have some fun. God made you for His pleasure!
Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. (NIV)
Psalm 126:2
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." (NIV)
Spring Clean Your Spirit
From Mary Fairchild,
Your Guide to Christianity - General.
How to Spring Clean Your Spirit
While you're cleaning out closets and sweeping under the furniture, think about this: Spring cleaning, while worth the effort, will only last for a season, but spiritual cleansing could have an eternal influence. So don't just dust behind those book shelves, dust off that favorite Bible and get ready for a spiritual spring cleaning.
1) Cleanse Your Heart - Get Spiritually Healthy:
The Bible encourages us to draw close to God and allow our hearts and bodies to be cleansed. This is the first step in our spring cleaning project. We can't clean ourselves. Instead we must draw near to God and ask Him to do the cleansing.
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (KJV)
Hebrews 10:22
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full ***urance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (NIV)
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (NKJV)
2) Clean Out Your Mouth - Deep Clean Inside and Out:
Spiritual cleansing requires deep cleaning -- it is housekeeping that goes beyond what others see and hear. It's a cleansing from within -- inside and out. As your heart gets clean, your language should follow. This is not just talking about bad language, but also negative talk and pessimistic thoughts that contradict the Word of God and faith. This includes the challenge to stop complaining.
Luke 6:45
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (NIV)
Philippians 2:14
Do everything without complaining or arguing... (NIV)
3) Renew Your Mind - Take Out the Garbage:
This is one of the biggest areas of struggle for most of us -- removing the garbage from our minds. Garbage in equals garbage out. We must feed our minds and spirits the Word of God instead of the garbage of this world.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (NIV)
4) Repent from Hidden Sin - Clean Out Your Spiritual Closets:
Hidden sin will destroy your life, your peace, and even your health. The Bible says to confess your sin - tell someone, and reach out for help. When your spiritual closets are clean, the heaviness from hidden sin will lift.
Psalm 32:3-5
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"—and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (NIV)
5) Release Unforgiveness and Bitterness - Get Rid of Old Baggage:
Any sin will weigh you down, but long kept unforgiveness and bitterness is like that old baggage in the attic you just can't seem to part with. You are so familiar with it, you don't even realize how it is hindering your life.
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. (NLT)
Ephesians 4:31-32
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and comp***ionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (NIV)
6) Involve Jesus in Your Daily Life - Let the Son Shine In:
What God wants most from you is relationship -- friendship. He wants to be involved in the big and the small moments of your life. Open up your life, let the light of God's presence shine into every part of your life, and you'll have no need for a yearly spiritual spring cleaning. Instead you'll experience daily, hourly, moment to moment refreshing of your spirit.
1 Corinthians 1:9
God ... is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (NLT)
Psalm 56:13
For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light. (NLT)
7) Learn to Laugh at Yourself and at Life:
Some of us take life too seriously, or we take ourselves too seriously. Jesus wants you to enjoy yourself, and learn to have some fun. God made you for His pleasure!
Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. (NIV)
Psalm 126:2
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." (NIV)
