I had the day off and was excited to spend it at home.I started the day with a song in my heart and a sunny day to greet me. My day began with me reading a few Psalms and My daughter reading to me a Proverbs. I felt inspired. I busted into a cleaning frenzy. You know the kind of cleaning only "You" know was done, corners, spot cleaning...etc. I was spot cleaning under chairs, behind corners and even in closets. The whole time I was scrubbing my home I had worship music blaring. It was a crisp, clear Washington morning but still worthy of cracking a window or two open for a while. The kids were at school the husband was gone and I had the house to my self to do as I pleased, and it pleased me to mop, dust, scrub and polish.
During my time of cleaning and worshiping, the scripture in Matthew about the inside of a cup being unclean kept coming to mind.
Matthew 23:25-28 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Have you ever grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and it had been cleaned but still had particles of who-knows-what on the inside of it? This is the picture I see when I read this scripture. You can't serve anyone with a cup like that. And so it is with our hearts. So, when you pour something into the cup, the crud that was stuck on it is now loose in the drink. The refreshment is tainted with inward garbage. Does that paint a picture for you?
I could hear the Lord speaking to me in this. How He loves to get on His knees and enter my inmost being and clean the forgotten spots, the neglected stains, the accumulated corner clutter. He enjoys the hands-on of taking out the trash. He loves to hear our songs floating out of the windows of our heart mingled with the aroma of His fragrant cleansing Power. Sure, He knows we will get dirty again. He knows our corners will get cluttered and He knows there will be more trash to take out. But that doesn't detour Him.
I think the biggie for me is, I truly want to be used by Him. I don't want any of my junk to be left as residue inside of me, the nasty little left over particles of fear or insecurities floating around in what could have been a refreshing drink for another.
It felt good for me to get on my knees and clean up spills that had been neglected or forgotten. I took the trash out and could here my worship music floating outside my little apartment. It looked clean to me as I stood outside of it. And I knew it was because I was doing the knuckle bleeding cleaning. And now I am outside of it hearing it sing.
I wonder if Christ feels that way after He's spent some one-on-one time with my inner person, a smile drawn across His face as He takes my trash and sin to the incinerator. The feeling of knowing a secret corner, that nobody knew about, was clean. Or the spot that was hidden under a piece of furniture was forever gone and now the living room could finally be rearranged. And then He hears the song...And smiles.
