Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

7 Days! In 7 days, just one week, my family and I will celebrate Christmas together. Gifts will be torn open, and the Christmas magic will explode. That's why today, just now even, I am deep-cleaning my home. Nobody's actually coming to my house besides the people that live here, but there's just something about a clean house on Christmas morning. I mean clean. Closets, baseboards, cabinets, the floor behind the big appliances...clean.

I don't know what exactly it is about cleanliness and holidays. But it seems to me that I can't really relax and enjoy the environment of excitement when there's a mess everywhere. I want to look back on photos of this Christmas and soak in the sweetness of my children's faces and not be distracted by the mess in the background.

I also have this crazy itch to help my kids (and me too) purge whatever isn't being used in their rooms and closets before Christmas. We donate any good-repair items to charity and the rest gets pitched. There's no need to keep things just for the sake of hoarding. And it makes finding a home in their room for new gifts a lot easier.

I know, I know...you'll read tons of blogs and articles on the web about just being "present in the moment." And you should. Absolutely, I am a firm believer that people come before process. People always come first...especially my own family. But for me, it's about preparing my home so that I have eliminated all distractions. The temptation is gone for me to be anything but present in the moment. I think my household cleanliness issue can mirror closely what should be happening in our hearts too.

I think of the Christmas carol, "Joy to the Word," and specifically, "Let ev'ry heart, prepare Him room..." This time of year, and all year, really, we are constantly bombarded with things to accomplish, stress, pressure, and temptations of all kinds. I think many times our hearts get so cluttered with all of the tactics of the enemy:  anxiety, jealousy, grief, resentment, stress, and many others I'm sure you could name.

If we don't take time at some point to take inventory of heart and purge all of the things that are unnecessary and allow the Holy Spirit to do some holiday cleaning, how will we ever be able to hear Him when He speaks and make room for His gifts? His gifts are simple, but oh so sweet: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness and self-control.

When David prayed his prayer in Psalm 51:10, he was repenting of sin and asking God to renew his soul. I think we all could benefit from repeating David's prayer as well. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." This year, my home won't be the only vessel ready for Christmas. Baseboards are on my list today. But when I'm on my knees scrubbing, I'll be praying David's prayer.

J-O-Y

John 15:11 “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” NLT

During this past Christmas season, I was tasked with creating a window display for our store. Part of that display included the letters “J-O-Y,” cascading down an old ladder. I bought the 9” paper mache letters and brought them home to spray paint them red. I didn’t want to just lay them in the grass to paint them because I just knew that dead grass sprigs would get caught in the wet paint. So I laid them on our concrete driveway, confident that any residual paint would wash away when the winter rains/ice came in the new year. 

That very day that I painted those letters, my husband came home to find “J-O-Y” outlined on the driveway. He said he knew instantly what I was doing but wished I might’ve used a cardboard box or something as a backdrop. I wished I had too. I was still optimistic about it eventually washing away, but to my dismay, it’s still there as bold as it was the day I painted it. 

But I have to say that what I once saw as something unsightly, I now see as a daily reminder. Every day when I leave for work, I see JOY, a reminder of what God has done in my life. And every day when I come home from work, I see JOY, a reminder that nothing can wash away my joy.

John records in his Gospel, the words of Christ about loving one another. Jesus states very plainly that if we simply love Him and one another, our joy will be full, overflowing to be exact. It’s interesting to me that Jesus basically says that our joy is dependent upon how we love Him and one another, and He even uses Himself as the example. Just as Christ has love us, and gave His life for us, we are also to love one another. Our love for one another is not dependent upon how others treat us. It’s dependent upon how we treat others, and how we share His love with them. And how we love Jesus...well, we must simply obey Him. How much easier could it be?

In modern times, we may sometimes confuse happiness with joy. Happiness is circumstantial, dependent upon the happenings in our lives. Joy is the knowledge of the abiding presence of God. I don’t know about you, but I choose joy over happiness any day. When hard days come, and it seems like there’s no end in sight, happiness fades, and washes away. Joy is still there. The assurance of knowing that He is with us is a comforting peace that supersedes anything we may be facing.

Do you have joy in your heart? The Scripture says to remain in Him, the true Vine, and He will cause you to bear fruit, His joy.

Encouragement for Today
James 1:2-4 “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” NLT

John 16:24 “Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.” NLT

Discipline

Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening--it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” NLT

I use coupons like a mad woman. If fact, I’ve held a few couponing seminars to teach others the methods that have proven effective for saving my family thousands of dollars a year. Some call me a cheap skate. I call myself smart. Coupons are a wonderful way to save money, and to me, it’s totally worth it. At one point, I was saving my family over $500 a month just by spending about 4 hours a week working on my strategies and plans. 

But there’s a catch. You can’t stop. When you first start, you don’t save as much because your bank of coupons/rebates have to get stocked. There’s not as many coupons in your stash as when you’ve been collecting them for a few weeks. If you miss a week of the Sunday inserts, you’ve messed up, and it’s sort of like starting over. Missing just one week of those precious legal counterfeit dollars is detrimental to your success. And it’s crucial that you are disciplined. If you just toss them all in an envelope and race off to the store, you will find yourself in a mess. Hours have to be spent preparing your plan, making lists, and reading coupon blogs in order to see the best deals. You may save some money with this method, but you will in no way see the same results as someone who has put in the time to prepare for shopping trip.

The author of Hebrews speaks in chapter 12 of God’s Loving Discipline. I was shocked to learn that there are at least eight definitions for the word “discipline.” While it can be used as both a noun and a verb, the indication is that discipline is used to make us better. Leading a disciplined life, receiving discipline in the form of punishment, and disciplining ourselves to learn a new skill all point to bettering ourselves for something else to come. It’s important, and the Bible speaks very clearly that discipline is a good thing, although painful. But Hebrews’s author is clear. The purpose of discipline is to make us more like Him. And it brings about a “peaceful harvest of right living.” Isn’t that a beautiful term? 

When we are lazy and unintentional in our spiritual lives, we need to expect the same results. Not devoting our time to prayer, Bible Study, and worship will only lead to a relationship that is stale and lacking in fervor. Where our time is spent will become the treasure of our hearts. 

Likewise, healthy living requires discipline. If we are intentional in our nutrition and exercise, we will see a healthy body. But if we are lazy and sloppy in taking care of His Temple, we will only see likewise results. Only exercising occasionally will not help if we are not disciplined in our routines. Slipping in junk food also does detriment to the good that we are trying to do when we prepare healthy food. But the painful discipline that we adhere to will only produce a wonderful harvest if we only persevere.

Do you need to cultivate discipline? The Scripture says that He will help us if we seek it. The Bible also says that discipline is the mark of a Spirit-filled life. 

Encouragement for Today

Proverbs 3:11-12 “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you.” NLT

Proverbs 25:28 “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.” NLT

Proverbs 12:1 “To learn, you must love discipline, it is stupid to hate correction.” NLT

1 Corinthians 9:27a “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should...” NLT

Self-Control

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” ESV

My sister will probably shoot me when she reads this post someday, but it’s a great story to prove my devotional thought for the day. She is 3 years older than me, and my only sibling. We did everything together as children, for the most part. This particular Sunday happened to be our mother’s birthday, and our dad had baked her a cake, complete with frosting. I think it was Italian Creme. Anyway, Sunday afternoons in our home were typically nap times, but my sister and I weren’t sleepy. We knew that cake was just sitting under the Tupperware Cake cover in the kitchen...just sitting there. And we knew our parents were asleep. To the kitchen we tiptoed to just get a little finger swipe of that delicious icing. We stuck our little pinkies in that icing, licked it off, but then quickly realized that one little taste would definitely not be enough. The sugar was calling us back, and back we went. In fact, we went back so many times that when we stopped, there was NO icing left on that cake. We had finger-licked the entire cake clean. What were we to do? Put the Tupperware cover back on! They’ll never notice! Inwardly, we both knew what would happen, but little girls can hope, right? 

Paul speaks in Galatians 5 of the marks of the Holy Spirit on a person’s life. These things are the evidence that the Holy Spirit dwells in you and lives through you. When He takes up residence, the evidence that He is there are things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. An entire sermon series and even a college course could be taught on these two verses alone, but today, I’d like to just focus on the self-control part. 

Paul emphasizes here that because we are saved and filled with His Spirit, we no longer need to live life by our own strength but by His Spirit. He gives us the power to produce the kind of fruit referenced here in this verse. Self-Control. Self-control is something that I’ve struggled with my entire life. I’ve lived a moral life, never stealing, never murdering, never vengeful and spiteful, but I definitely have self-indulged. I’ve indulged in hurling hurtful words to make myself feel better, telling lies when it benefitted me, and eating so much that I went into an emotional coma just to drown my sorrows. Overall, I’ve always battled with self-control. Living a self-controlled life, though, is something that marks us as Holy-Spirit filled people. I want to share His love, joy, and peace with others, along with every other good fruit He produces, but I can’t just leave out self-control. What catastrophes we would make of relationships and situations if we didn’t exercise self-control! And imagine what catastrophes we could avoid if we did.

The great thing here about this list isn’t the gifts we receive when He fills us though, it’s the fact that He gives us the power to control ourselves! Don’t you see? He tells us to be self-controlled, but He empowers it! How awesome is that?!? We don’t have to live life realizing only after we’ve licked the frosting off the entire cake that we should’ve done better.

Where do you need to exercise self-control? Is it in your nutrition, exercise, or speech? Ask Him to help you. He gives us the power to live life pleasing to Him. 

Encouragement for Today

Proverbs 25:28 “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.” NLT

2 Peter 1:5-7 “...make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” NLT

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” NLT