|
Editor’s
|
CLEARING OUT THE CLUTTER
“Do you not know that your body is
a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” 1 Corinthians 6:19
Clutter inhibits our life
from being filled by the Holy Spirit. A temple is a dwelling
place for holy things, but like any dwelling, it can accumulate things that clutter
up the place, taking away from its intended purpose. And so it is with us.
We live in a world
that is full of worthless things. It is like living in a restless, tumultuous
sea of activities that vie for our attention. We are exposed to the world’s
ever-changing culture that tries to entangle us. Daily we encounter worldly
attitudes that influence our heart and mind. Satan is persevering; he never stops
trying to establish some stronghold to weaken us, and thus strengthen his deceptive
purpose to steer us off course. Sin, in our flesh, also endeavors to take root
in our life and steer us off course as followers of Christ. This is a constant
battle; one we face every day. Only constant vigilance will keep the clutter
out. If we are honest, we will admit that we fail to be as watchful as we
should at all times. So just how do we clear out the clutter?
It
would be impossible to clear away the things that impede the spiritual life without
the aid of the Holy Spirit and prayer. David, in Psalm 139:23, 24 offered a
wonderful example for us to follow which would help us in this matter: “Search me, O 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.”
What
would be some of the things that could be cluttering our lives, taking up room
within and thereby quenching the Holy Spirit. It will vary for each of us and
the list could be so vast that we surely need divine help to reveal these
things to us. But, let us look at a few of the things that might be cluttering
up our spiritual dwelling place.
Worry is one of most common and
effective ways to clutter the life of the Christian. Often, we redefine worry
as honest concern, but this kind of justification is really defending sin, for
worry rightly identified, is simply unbelief. It is very time consuming as it plays
and replays all the potential “what-ifs” and their potential consequences. Worry seeks to find solutions to problems,
real or perceived, through human reasoning; it discounts God, not
allowing Him control in our life. We clear out this troublesome type
of clutter by giving over the situation to God, and leaving it there. Someone has wisely said, “When you think about a problem over and over in your mind, that’s
called worry. When you think about God’s Word over and over in your mind,
that’s meditation. If you know how to
worry, you already know how to meditate!” Moreover, godly meditation
combats worry!
The
Apostle Paul admonishes us to live in a state of contentment (Phil. 4:11). If
we find this is not so in our lives, the clutter of discontentment has probably
found entrance. There are many causes for not being content. It might be dissatisfaction
with our status in life brought about by worldly ambition. SELF in the center is
the root cause of most of our clutter. No true Christian would consciously accuse
God as causing the problem. But think about it, if we have turned over our will
to do God’s will, and have fully yielded control of our life to Him, aren’t we
being discontented and dissatisfied with Him by not accepting wherever we are
at the moment?
When
Satan sees a discontented heart it, gives him a great opening to allow other
weeds grow. A discontented heart can cause covetousness, greed, and jealousy to
take root, not only affecting our relationship with the Lord, but also
adversely affecting others, perhaps even causing them to sin. Therefore, it is important that we recognize discontentment
and deal with it appropriately.
Another piece of clutter is feeling
offended when someone does some unkindness to you. The carnal reaction is to retaliate
in anger or by putting it in our book of remembrance for further consideration,
looking for opportunity to retaliate. This, in turn, sows the seeds of bitterness and hatred, and the longer we entertain
these things the harder it will be to be rid of them. The cure is to forgive from the heart, which will sweep
our negative reactions right out the door.
Guilt
is another way we can clutter our spiritual lives. There are two kinds of guilt,
true guilt and false guilt. True guilt is when the Holy Spirit convicts us of
our sin and we deal with it effectively as we are told in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive
us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” This completely eradicates our sin before God.
But our enemy, Satan, will try to plant seeds of doubt in our mind and we begin
to question whether God really has
forgiven us. If we do not reject this, it will quickly clutter our mind, weighing
us down emotionally and spiritually. Trusting God’s promise squashes all doubt
responsible for false guilt before it can take root.
In
the climate of change and uncertainty our world is undergoing with “economic downturn”
(a nice term for recession), fear is also
knocking at the door of our mind. It is so easy to allow fear entrance in our concern
for what tomorrow may bring in our changing, unpredictable world. Without a
strong faith in God and His promises, the world would be a very scary place at
this time. But our faithful Father has
said, “I will never leave nor forsake
you.” His providences are sure; “Yea
and Amen in Christ Jesus!” Faith and
Love ~ “Perfect love casts out fear…”
are the only way to combat such fear.
Pride is a piece of clutter that often
goes undetected. It is one of the most subtle works of the flesh, and rare is
the person who is completely free from it. Jesus gives a great example in Luke
16:9-14: “To some who were confident
of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this
parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a
tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank
you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like
this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have
mercy on me, a sinner.’ ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went
home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and
he who humbles himself will be exalted.’” How easy it is to look around and
see others differently than the way God sees them. This again, is something
that Satan encourages us to do. The Apostle Paul knew the dangers of doing this
and warns us in 2
Cor. 10:12, “We do not dare to classify or
compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure
themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not
wise.” Man’s standards are 180 degrees from God’s thoughts
and ways. We must walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). “Learn
of me” says our Lord, “for I am meek
and lowly in mind…” Matthew. 11:29.
May
we continually pray, as did David in Psalms 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And
see if there be any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” He will help us by His Spirit
to throw off all that clutters and would hinder our walk with Jesus, and to be
conformed to His image. Our desire to be like Him and see Him as He is (1 John
3:1-3) hinges on our keeping the clutter out and as the Apostle John continues,
“he that has this hope, purifies himself
even as He is pure!” It is our
choice to make. May we run the race free from all clutter!
E. Weeks