Prayer Week 28: Deep Cleaning

Spring cleaning, deep cleaning, purging are common practices people do when “the fit takes them.” The idea of getting rid of old or unused items and cleaning everything are good, useful and healthy, helping clear our homes of clutter and filth. I recently cleaned my fridge for the first time in years. I hadn’t noticed before that it was very dirty, but it looks and smells so much better now! While the common trends are on cleansing the home, how often do we focus on cleansing our soul?

 

Psalm 139:23-24 New American Standard Bible 1995

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

Job 31:6 New American Standard Bible 1995

Let Him weigh me with accurate scales,
And let God know my integrity.

Psalm 26:2 New American Standard Bible 1995

Examine me, O Lord, and try me;
Test my mind and my heart.

Proverbs 17:3 New American Standard Bible 1995

The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
But the Lord tests hearts.

Psalm 51:10-11 New American Standard Bible 1995

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

 

While our emphasis is cleansing what can be seen by others, we often ignore and even avoid cleansing what is hidden. The deep places of our hearts are areas we don’t want anyone to see, or even to acknowledge that they exist. However, God knows everything. He already knows what is in the recesses or our souls and minds, and only He can cleanse them. Unfortunately, this is a painful, and sometimes humiliating, process. It requires admitting what we want to deny, revealing what we want to hide, and removing what we secretly hold tight.

 

Only God can accurately assess our hearts and reveal what is inside. Our hearts are deceitful and want to make out that they are better than they really are. We are misled into believing that we don’t have anything to deal with, that our sin is taken care of or not really that bad. We are fooled into believing that we are good enough. Only God sees us truly as we really are without the screens and facades we hide behind. Only He has the power to remove what has us bound, to release the chains of sin and free us to live like Him.

 

This week as you pray, open your heart and mind to God. Ask Him to do a deep clean on your life, clear out the clutter and expose anything that is getting in the way of your relationship with Him, preventing you from experiencing His abundant life. Don’t resist this process. He wants you to be fully and completely His, free from the bondage of sin and the tentacles of the world that still cling to you. He wants to deliver you from anything that weakens His power in your life. Keep a journal of what He brings to mind and actively seek to remove those things. Ask Him to help you clear the closet and set you free!

 Prayer points taken from Praying Through Adversity by Jennifer Kennedy Dean.