I’m going to tell you a secret…I’m not great at cleaning my house. Hahaha! Just kidding; that’s not a secret. That’s common knowledge!
My least favorite thing about the holiday season is making sure all of the nooks and crannies are sparkling. You know what I’m talking about. You want to make sure that when your guests come in your home, your mirrors are sparkling, the floors are freshly mopped, and the sheets in the spare bedroom are crisp and clean. You wash away the dirt and grime and make sure it’s refreshed. It’s nice to know that you’ve worked hard at cleaning your home!
It should be the same with ourselves. God reminds us of that in I Corinthians 6:19.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
I think it’s easy for us to forget that what we ingest physically and spiritually affects how clean our temple is. It could be the shows that we watch; are they pleasing to God? Maybe it’s the books that we’re reading. Is the material something that edifies the body? How about the company we keep? Are these people bringing fellowship as a believer or are we finding ourselves turning in the other direction? Perhaps we’re missing church. We starve ourselves of spiritual meat and a body of believers. I could go on.
When we recognize that something or someone is preventing or stunting our maturity in a relationship with God, we should be correcting or purging it. I have to do this often. As I read the Bible more and study scripture, I start asking myself if what I’m currently engaged in is glorifying God.
Let me give you an example. For me, it started with TV. For the last two years, when my husband and I have turned on shows that we’ve always watched, I’ve found myself cringing at the sex scene or the use of foul language that had never bothered me before. When I recognized that it was making me uncomfortable, I started praying about what I was watching. Now, seasons of shows are left unwatched because I want the temple as clean as it can be.
Cussing is next. Growing up, in junior high and high school I cursed like a sailor (sorry, Mom!). And then there were a great many years when I never cussed. As I’ve gotten older, I got lax. Now, I’m praying that the Holy Spirit would guard my tongue. If I wouldn’t say it front of God, I don’t want to say it. I’m pretty sure God’s not calling someone the “B” word from His throne, so what makes it ok today? It’s a work in progress for me, and I find myself asking for forgiveness often. But I want the temple clean.
Does it mean we have to be perfect? Of course not! The only man that walked this earth to lead a sinless life was Jesus. But He does tell us in His Word over and over again to do what is pleasing unto the Lord. While pleasing according to world’s standards looks vastly different than God’s, I want to choose to honor Him every time!
This week, let’s take inventory on ourselves! Let’s clean out our temples of what distracts us from the work of the Lord and start fresh. Let’s aim to keep our temples clean!
~Erin
Iron Porch 