2023 New Beginnings!

The Start of a New year is always an exciting time for me. For several years now, I have started every year with a plan to purge and organize my home. I have used several checklists, project plans, website motivators, etc to help with this process and, most years, I am pretty successful cleaning, purging, and organizing... until about March. By March, the bulk of what needs to be done is done and I start to lose interest in continuing the effort. I find myself saying things like, "it's good enough," "I can get back to that later," and "no one else cares about that but me." These statements, while true, leave the year always feeling like there is junk somewhere that I didn't take care of and it leaves me a feeling of job incomplete. As my life has increased in responsibilities, activities, jobs, and kids, I find it more and more difficult to stick to the plan and not lose my motivation as "more important" things take their place.  

A few thoughts come to mind in wanting to share the applications of this yearly ritual in my life to my walk with the Lord. If you are in the practice of making everything a spiritual application, you probably already know where I am headed. 

My annual purge (as it is now called) starts out with a simple instruction but as I go through the projects, I am easily distracted and redirected. For the first few days, I find I am motivated and get BIG projects completed... Laundry Room ✅ Bathroom✅ Put Away Christmas✅ I start to feel confident that I am really going to get through every room in the house and have everything just as it should be and it motivates me to do more. Kitchen Area✅A LARGE goodwill dump✅ But ultimately, the kids start back to school, a vacation is planned and responsibilities outside of the house start to take priority over the purge. The cleanliness that comes with the few items being checked off feels good and I start to lose momentum in keeping up with the work and the attention it takes to REALLY purge the whole house.  This year I can't help but see the parallel to my relationship with salvation. I have the basics... I am saved! I believe and have confessed. ✅But what now? I go to church✅I serve in ministry✅I pray✅... Is this enough? Should I be doing more? 

Ephesians 2:8-10 clears us of any responsibility for our own salvation. We don't get credit for asking the Lord to save us! We are to confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus was raised from the dead to be saved (Romans 10:9.) It seems pretty simple and certainly an easy start to our salvation! And YET, we are to "work out our salvation" with fear and trembling so that God may do His will and accomplish His plan through us. (Philippians 2:12-13) That certainly sounds more complicated than just confessing and believing. 

It seems without a daily effort to turn my focus to Him and start my day with Him, that it would be easy to just count the promised salvation as enough with the easy boxes checked. 

When we were young, my mother gave us chores with small instructions. For instance, instead of saying clean your room, she would say, pick up all the clothes and then report back to me with the job completed and I will give you the next job. We would pick up the clothes and report "Job Complete!" and she would give us another small task. It felt good to complete the tasks and the ultimate reward was a clean room. Only I knew if I cut corners or shoved things under the bed. but I also knew, it felt better when I didn't. The same is true for my annual purge in my house. When I take a room and complete it, it feels good! I can check it off the list. But when I cut corners (create a junk drawer, skip the deep Clorox Clean, or keep things I know I don't need,) I feel I have cheated myself out of the satisfaction (and long-term benefit) of that room truly being done. 

For me, my salvation is set! I have checked that box.... but to get the FULL benefits/rewards of my salvation, I have to do my part to SEEK HIM (Hebrews 11:6.) It is no longer enough for me to just sit in my salvation and know that I am headed to heaven. I have to deep clean the areas where sin is still present. I have to search my heart and ask God to do the same to reveal in me anything that is not Holy and righteous and then put to task the steps to healing and purging and actively LIVING in the truth of my salvation. 

Psalm 51 is a beautiful illustration of this very thing. A full confession, purging, and pledge to allow God to have His way in us and to bring salvation to the broken and contrite spirits. It is a request to not leave anything undone in the process, but to reveal all the 'dust bunnies' and 'junk drawers' in my life so that in all things I may be able to reap the benefits of righteousness and a deeper fellowship with God! 

Psalm 51: 10-13: 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

I have to repeat this every day. The more I draw near and seek Him and receive the rewards of my salvation (PEACE, ASSURANCE, BLESSING, etc) the more I am encouraged and motivated to continue in my faith. I am far from finished with this process of purification and purging the sinful nature. Thankfully He proclaimed JOB COMPLETE! or in His words, "It is finished." on my behalf (John 19:30.) But, there will be a day that my Lord returns and I pray and faithfully live that when that day comes, I will be able to report, JOB COMPLETE!! and He will agree and take me to my perfect home with Him!!!