Spring Cleaning

It's springtime here in Michigan. And I just love spring. It's such a beautiful time of the year. A time for new beginning, fresh starts. Everything smells good. The trees are starting to bud, the flowers are beginning to bloom. Days are longer... afternoons are warm and nights are crisp. And I know I may be weird - but one thing I enjoy every spring is a good deep spring clean. I know, I know - I'm really not right - but of all the gifts and talents God didn't bless me with - cleaning IS one of them He DID bless me with. And I've always prided myself on my ability to clean. I keep a pretty clean house... I vacuum almost daily, I scrub floors, I dust tables, I do the laundry, I do the dishes... and for the most part, our home is generally clean. Now I didn't say that my house is clutter-free, that's a different story (as my husband would say), but I am a pretty good house cleaner.

Last week I decided that as part of my spring cleaning routine, I would clean our refrigerator out. Completely. And so it began pretty early that morning. Everything came out and every shelf was cleaned. No - scrubbed. I remember stepping back after I was all finished to marvel at my work. A clean fridge. One more thing to check off my list. And so I began putting the food items back into the refrigerator. But then it dawned on me... some of these items are expired. As I carefully placed each item back onto the shelves, I realized that some of the items were rotten. Spoiled. And needed to be tossed out. I'm ashamed to admit that some of these items had expired months ago - which only proved that it had been SOME time... too long as a matter of fact... since I had done a good deep clean of my fridge. And the number of things that needed to be purged into the trash that morning were mind-blowing. And what started out as a pretty full fridge, ended with a need to make an emergency trip to my local grocery store!

In Matthew 5, Jesus, referred here in scripture as the Rabbi, was gathered up the mountainside with His disciples to teach the crowds that had gathered. What he taught them has become known as the Sermon on The Mount. Here, Jesus taught on The Beatitudes. Beatitudes are known as supreme blessings. Blessings meaning "happy, fortunate and blissful." The Beatitudes demonstrated that the way to heavenly blessedness is opposite of the worldly path people normally follow to find happiness. In the beatitudes, Jesus describes the character of true faith.

In Matthew 5:8 Jesus says this, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." I love the way this passage of scripture is written in the Message version... "You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world."

What is Jesus saying here? How do we have pure hearts? What does that look like and how is that lived out?

I think Jesus is asking us to make sure that our insides are in check.

You see - I think we can fool just about anyone. But we can't fool God.
People around us - they see what's on the outside, but God sees the heart. And I believe that it's the heart, not the head that we need to be most concerned about.

Oh we're good pretenders. We can fool anyone into believing that we have it all together. We go to church, we put on make-up, we do our hair, we brush our teeth, we say the right words of encouragement to neighbors and friends, we dress our kids nicely, we kiss our spouses in public... but behind closed doors - we're a mess. Just like my refrigerator, I was fooling everyone. My kitchen looked clean. My counters looked neat, even the outside door to my refrigerator was wiped down and shiny - but inside... inside that refrigerator was some rotten, spoiled stuff that needed to be tossed out!

My prayer every day of my life is this, "Jesus, fill me up with your presence today. Less of me, Father, more of You." But folks, the only way can have a pure heart - a heart like His - is to begin acting like Jesus. To begin asking Him to remove the junk from my life so that I can have a pure heart.

Jesus teaches that even though we are in the world - we are not to be part of this world. This world is not our home... we are to be set apart. We are to look different. Every day as Christians, we have an opportunity to minister to those who don't have a relationship with Christ. We have a calling on our lives to show the love of Jesus to those who don't yet know Him... the question is will others scratch their heads and say, "They have something different - I want what they have!"

That "something different" starts with a pure heart.

It's not what we do - it's who we are. God is concerned with our hearts - not how smart we are - not what kind of cars we drive - not what kind of houses we live in - not how good we can act or how much we can smile - He is concerned with our character and what's on the inside of us.

When I think about Godly character and a man who's heart was pure, I think about King David of the Old Testament. David was a man of many colors. Pulled from the comforts of his life as a shepherd boy, the youngest and smallest child in a family of 7 sons, David was possibly the least likely to become King of Israel. David - the least likely to succeed was the same man who slayed Goliath and would later go on to make His heavenly Father proud of Him. However, at close examination of David's life, he made some mistakes. Somewhere along the way, he got off track and encountered a dark side - human sin. David painfully proved the depths to which one can fall after reaching such heights, but even still in Acts, chapter 13, verse 22, God called David, "A man after my own heart."

Max Lucado wrote a book entitled, "A Cast of Characters". In this book, Max talks about common people in the hands of an uncommon God and has written a chapter on David. Here's what he has to say about King David:

"God called him 'a man after my own heart'. He gave the appellation to no one else. Not Abraham or Moses or Joseph. He called Paul an apostle, John his beloved, but neither was tagged a man after God's own heart. One might read David's story and wonder what God saw in him. The fellow fell as often as he stood, stumbled as often as he conquered. He stared down Goliath, yet ogled at Bathsheba; defied God-mockers in the valley, yet joined them in the wilderness. An Eagle Scout one day. Chumming with the Mafia the next. He could lead armies, but couldn't manage a family. Raging David. Weeping David. Bloodthirsty. God-hungry. Eight wives. One God. A man after God's own heart? That God saw him as such gives hope to us all. David's life has little to offer the unstained saint. Straight A souls find David's story disappointing. The rest of us find it reassuring. We ride the same roller coaster. We alternate between swan dives and belly flops, souffles and burnt toast. In David's good moments, no one was better. In his bad moments, could one be worse? The heart of God was a checkered one!"

In Psalms 139:23-24 David pleads with God by saying, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."

This should be our prayer daily. Asking for God to search us - to examine our hearts - to test us and know our thoughts. Having pure hearts means trusting in a God who is filled with grace and mercy. What is impossible for man (including having the purest of hearts) has been made possible by God.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul says, "So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God." THAT, my friends, is keeping a pure heart!

Having a pure heart is evidenced by the way we live our lives. Do we live with good intentions or do we live with intentionality and pureness of heart? How are we living out pure hearts...

It's in the doing for others, it's in our obedience to God, it's reading His word, it's asking Him for guidance and direction, it's forgiving, it's being thankful not for all circumstances, but IN and THROUGH all circumstances, it's being kind, it's cheerfully giving of our time, talents and resources.

One of the things that has helped me over the years is getting an accountability partner. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 tells us that "Two are better than one". When one man stumbles, and trust me we're gonna stumble, the other can pick him up. Accountability partners are an excellent choice if your desire is to have and keep a pure heart before God. We all need someone in our lives to pull us back. To help us up. To dust us off and set us back on track. God created us to be relational beings and we desperately need one another.

At the end of the day it's this.. Jesus knew what kind of person I was going to be... the kind of person you were going to be... and all the silly mistakes we were going to make - and yet He still chose to go to the cross and die a miserable, painful death anyway! If that doesn't bring joy and peace and comfort - I don't know what will.

My prayer for all of you tonight (including myself) is that we would begin asking God to give us a pure heart. To make us more like Jesus. That God would use our messes, our mistakes and our brokenness, for His glory. That what lives on the inside of us would be revealed on the outside. That what we feel begins to be how we live and how we live begins to be that which pleases God. That we would not just have good intentions to live pleasing and faithful lives, but that we become passion-filled people most concerned about what God sees in us that He wants to use to build His kingdom.

A man after my own heart. Oh how I want to come to the end of my life with God saying that Wendy is a woman after my own heart!

We serve an amazing God of second chances. A God who sees what's on the inside and loves deeply, compassionately and faithfully.

Your story isn't over yet... in fact, it's just beginning. Allow God access to your heart and watch the transformation unfold.

Finding JOY in the JOurneY,