Spring Cleaning before Christmas...

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:17

There's something about cleaning my home that makes me just feel better about life. I wonder why it takes so long for me to actually do it though? If I cleaned a little bit at a time, the work load wouldn't be half as long - nor half as disgusting. I'm 90% done with the bathroom right now. 10% of nastiness to go - good times...

Bathrooms are awesome - until you have to clean them. And - wow - my gag reflex - not good. But - I find that I wait until it's seriously ridiculous. Yet - I'm always surprised when I look behind something I haven't set my eyes to in a long time and discover the definition of nastiness. Yep - I'm such a guy.

I tell myself - clean a little bit everyday. And - I'm all in at first. Then, I just forget about it. The next thing I know - months have passed - and back to nasty. The most trafficked areas get cleaned, but the less trafficked, not so much. And then it's Spring cleaning to do all over again.

I wonder why we do that with God too? As in - confessing our sins. God knows everything, and technically He doesn't need us to confess every little sin we do. He might not need it, but I think we do. Confession is more for us. God already forgave all our sins at the cross - ALL of them. Even future sins. So - that problem is over and done with. However - the scriptures do say that we should confess our sins - multiple times - even though God already took care of them two thousand years ago. I wonder why? Maybe because confession is like a spring cleaning of the soul.

I think it might be a lot like cleaning my bathroom. God has forgiven us. He purchased our soul with His life, death, and resurrection - but we get dirty - and more dirty - until maybe we're even nasty. While - positionally - we are completely a saint in Christ (God's grace covers ALL of us) - we get dirty with our lives - and we often need a cleaning. For many of us - we wait too long - and we need a deep cleaning.

Sometimes I take for granted that I'm forgiven - and I don't confess. And sometimes it's not that I don't think I need to - I don't confess more from avoidance. Kinda like cleaning my bathroom. And I think that might look like God peeking behind the less trafficked areas of my life - and saying "Wow - there's cleaning to be done" Sometimes He shakes things up in order that I might fall to my knees and say "clean me now." And, for some reason, I'm always surprised when it gets to that point.

So - for me anyway - I'm going to try to make that a daily part of my prayers. "Here's my nastiness God - clean me up." Because - I know I can't do it by myself.

The great thing is that after I've showered my soul with God's grace once again, I really do feel better about life. May the same be true for you too.

Have a great day!

Jer