Everyday Step with Jesus

A new year is finally here…bringing along hope. This past year has been one in which we all have had to endure many different challenges. Challenges that have caused grief and sorrow, that have slowed us down and made us stop and think about what truly matters. Along the way we have had to depend on God more than ever…moments that have taught us from whom our true help comes from. The beginning of a new year brings us hope to leave all these troubles in the past and to look at what is ahead. The beautiful part is that this hope doesn’t have to stop the first week of January, or at the end of January, or even in the middle of the year. In Christ, every day is a new beginning, a new opportunity to accomplish our goals. A new opportunity to leave the mistakes and the tribulations in the past and bring forward the lessons that they have taught us. Remember that we make our plans, but God is the one that directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9 NKJV). It is great to plan and have goals that push us everyday, just remember to include your Helper in these plans and in the end He will be the one to direct you. It is a breath of fresh air to begin a new year, I just pray that with the same hope and enthusiasm that we receive the new year we can receive every day. Every day is a new clean slate in which we can be directed by our Helper. 

Do you like to clean? For me that answer would be it depends…lol. I generally do like to clean, I can only go on with a mess for so long before it begins to frustrate me. It doesn’t mean that I always feel like doing it, but I do generally like to clean. The process of cleaning takes a while. For example, cleaning a house requires different areas and stages. There’s the living room, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. Not only are there different rooms and areas that need to be cleaned but there are also different levels of cleaning that can be done. Some people only clean the outer spaces, the visible parts. Whereas some people are more thorough and like to deep clean. The more you deep clean it seems like the more mess you find and the longer it takes to clean that area. Doing a thorough cleaning requires moving some things around in order to get to the parts that are harder to reach. More often than not, these things that need to be moved are heavy and require effort that can leave us tired(restless). Even though cleaning may not always be enjoyable it is something that needs to get done. The more we put it off the messier it gets, the longer it takes to clean up the mess and get rid of the things we need to get rid of. The same can be applied to our spiritual life, the difference is that with our spiritual life it is necessary to do the deep cleaning and not just the outside parts. In the cleaning process of our spiritual lives we are not the ones doing the cleaning, but our Helper. Will it be enjoyable? Probably not. Will we want to do it? Probably not. But is it necessary? Yes. How do we get around to this deep cleaning in our spiritual life? Keep on reading…

Search Within

First, we need to realize that there is some cleansing that needs to be done. Cleansing from what? From our old ways, double-mindedness, sin, doubt, fear, a hard heart, childhood traumas, pride, stubbornness, and so many different areas that only you and God know about. In order to realize our need for this cleansing, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to show us these different areas. His Word tells us:

Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

When we examine ourselves we admit and realize those things that don’t belong. We realize that we need to go back to the Lord and let go of these things that are stumbling blocks in our lives. When the Lord helps us identify these different areas that need cleansing in our lives it can be hard to reach these areas and admit in the beginning. We may have to remove certain things that have been blocking us and not allowing us to get to the real area that needs the cleansing. Just like when we’re cleaning physically, on the surface it doesn’t look too bad, but once you start moving things around it is all out in the open and at that point there is no longer a way to cover it up. This is exactly what we need to do, we need to uncover and bring out to the open these things that need to be cleansed from our mind and heart. We can’t do this alone. We do this with the help of the Holy Spirit. Once these things are out in the open and we admit to ourselves and God that there needs to be a change, the process of deep cleansing begins. 

Apply His Word

We will need to put in our part by first being willing to reading and studying His word, then we need to apply His word. It is not helpful to know so much word and not apply it. What does applying His word look like? It is living out His word as much as possible. Of course, we all fall short of His glory and we mess up, but the point is to keep on striving to apply His word. First, we need to know His word, this means to spend time in His word, study the Word. Make a habit of spending daily time in His Word. Once we do that, we can apply the Word when difficult situations arise in our life. For example, His Word tells us not to lean on our own understanding. So, when we are facing a time of trouble or when we need to make an important decision, don’t rely on others’ opinions or what this world tells you…but go to His Word which teaches us who our God is and what His character is like.

God Himself is the only one that does the cleaning in our lives. Along our walk, and the more we learn His word we will begin to notice things within us that don’t belong in our hearts and minds. When we notice these things that don’t belong, it becomes an opportunity to apply what we have learned through His Word. 

Be Patient – It Takes Time

More often than not, this spiritual cleaning is done in areas, and this depends on the different areas in our life/heart that need the cleansing. 

I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. Exodus 23:29-30

God was talking to His people and He knew that the enemies of the Israelites were too many to take all out once, they had to be taken out little by little otherwise it would become too much for the Israelites to handle. The things that we need to get rid of in our lives that go against His word are also our enemies. Oftentimes, we think that those around us are our enemies, but in reality our true enemies are the things within us that hold us back. Most of the time we are our own worst enemy because we are the ones that don’t believe, the ones that doubt, the ones with unresolved issues that we haven’t handed over to God. This is why it is so important to analyze our heart and ask the Lord to help us get rid of those things that don’t belong. As these various things are being removed from our lives, we begin to increase in our spiritual walk and we continue to get stronger in our faith. 

We need to remember that it is a process, that these things are being driven out little by little. When we are cleaning it takes a while, because we are taking it area by area…being thorough and making sure that we don’t leave any garbage behind. God knows what He is doing, and He does it little by little for our own good, so that it doesn’t become too much to handle. Remember that by the time we come to Christ we have already been living this way for many years, our way of thinking is so automatic to us that it will take time and practice to change it.

Cleansing

Jesus came to this world, to do exactly that…save us and cleanse us from our sin. Having no sin, He took our sins upon himself. 

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21

When we believe in Christ and what He did for us, we receive the gift that He came to give us, the gift of salvation and eternal life with Him. This beautiful gift of salvation comes along with many other blessings, such as being adopted through Christ, being redeemed, chosen and the list goes on and on about who we are in Christ. Christ has already done it for us, He has already cleansed us…He has already made us new but we remain with the struggles within and that is the part where together with the Holy Spirit we get cleansed within. 

His Word tells us:

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8 NKJV

This is the part that requires action from our part, to draw near to Him. His Word also tells us to confess so that we may be cleansed (1 John 1:9 NKJV). This goes back to the first point of searching within and being honest with ourselves and with God.

Remember that this spiritual cleaning applies both to those that are new in Christ as well as those that have been in this walk for years. That is because when we first come to Christ there are things that we will need to get rid of/let go of. Also, if you’ve been in this walk for years you may have picked up a few things along the way that you shouldn’t have. Either way, there is some cleaning that needs to be done. But we are not alone in this process, we have our Helper that will guide us through it. Everyday is a new opportunity filled with new mercies in which we can accomplish those things which the Lord has set out of for us. At the end of the day cleaning is a choice. A choice that can be hard to make, but once we do it we will be glad that we did.