I love spring cleaning. Each year I look forward to it eagerly, making list after list of things to do, time required, plan of attack, and so on. I tend to plunge into it with enthusiasm, joyfully crossing things off my list as they are completed.
But there is a down side to all this: experience has taught me that about halfway through the project my strength, eagerness and desire will peter out, and I’ll be left with nothing but chores, and the question, “Why did I ever get myself into this?”
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Oh, Lord, my spirit needs “spring cleaning,” too. I need a time to take stock, to examine my life in the light of Your Word, to yield to cleansing by Your Spirit. And Lord, in the past I have begun this exercise so eagerly, planning to spend so much time in prayer, so much in Bible Study, and so on. But I am weak, Lord, and I let my precious time be taken by other things. Please take over my soul’s cleaning: I yield to you. And with the psalmist I pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 KJV)
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. Psalm 19:12-13 MSG