"Spring Cleaning"

"Spring cleaning is the period in spring time set aside for cleaning a house, normally applied in climates with a cold winter. The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name." Also known as "khooneh tekouni" which literally means "shaking the house".  

When spring arrives specially after a cold and long winter all the sudden we get the urge to clean and put away all that reminds us of winter and bring in color and life to the house.  We take a day almost always a weekend and start our cleanup time. We turn our house upside down reaching every corner and throwing away the things that no longer are useful in the house! We work hard and till everything is in tip top condition and smells clean then we say we finished our Spring Cleaning Day!

We need to do the same with our "spiritual house" our lives; we need to do a clean up and a good scrubbing to freshen up our lives!  We are Gods temple; He lives in our house so we do need to clean up! Most of the time we just do some moping and dusting and tell the Lord sure come on in our house, sit down in our beautiful living room with those beautiful new sofa and pillows and rugs we just installed. We invite Him to our dining room that is in awesome new condition; show Him our kitchen brand new by the way. Well He sees what we let Him see and visit in  our house but meantime the doors to our bedrooms are locked and do not even mention the big closet in middle of the hallway closed with key!

My daughter is a big fan of the TV sitcom “Friends" and I would watch it some times. There is one of the characters known as Monica who is obsessive-compulsive, everything had to be clean! But wait she had a secret! Her closet in the hallway the one no one was allowed to open! Until one day! Chandler opens the closet! And yep all the sudden a lot of junk that was tucked in came out in a big pile! That seen was so unforgettable it never came out of my mind! Got stuck on me!

That is truly much of our lives! We talk about Spring Cleaning in our lives and just think about letting the Lord in some areas of our house and not those intimate places, like our closets, our drawers and our old trunks.  Those places we do not let anyone go into, those areas that hurt the most and we just try to tuck them so hard and try our most to ignore they are there being a part of our lives in our daily basis.  When we come to the Lord the Bible says we become a new creature all things are new in Him (paraphrase by me) but if you do not give these areas of your life to the Lord and let Him come in your areas and clean them up, they will keep on accumulating dust and dirt and growing till it's a big pile of hurt and you will have to be getting more rooms to be able to put all that junk accumulated making your life more miserable and even getting your health more strained and worse.  

We need to let the Lord come in our spiritual closets, clean them and organize them in perfect harmony.  Hidden pain will destroy your lives, your peace.  Confess your pain, tell someone and reach out to the Lord for help! Release Unforgiveness and Bitterness - Get Rid of the trash: long kept unforgiveness and bitterness is like old baggage in the attic you just can't seem to part with. You are so familiar with it; you don't even realize how it is affecting your life.

Psalms 32.3-5 the Message 

When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became day long groans. ⁴ The pressure never left me all the juices of my life dried up. ⁵ Then I let it all out; I said, "I'll make a clean breast of my failures to God.” Suddenly the pressure was gone—my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.

Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 

Ask the Lord to do a special spring cleaning in your life today and you will see how the cleanness and the organization bring you peace and joy and awesome changes to your life and those around you!

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

Always remember God has plans for good and not for bad in your life and mine!

P.S. I had to let the Lord Shake My House!!

Happy spring!

Many Blessings!!

Plans

"A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective."


God always has greater plans for our lives!  We just think that it is not true, that He has to be specific and detailed in everything and God loves to be spontaneous and surprise us once in a while! God is truly organized but I think the best things He has for us come spontaneous.


These few months have been a little different.  I made some little changes that I did not have in mind doing I just went and took my first step and it has been full of enriching experiences and not so good  ones! Can't have them all! 


I did not have in my plans to change church, I am not the kind of person that goes from one church to another trying to find the one but in mist of some changes I found myself changing to another church and still do not believe what happened because it was so fast but I did it! Well I been experiencing some supernatural moments and receiving a different kind of worship and praise I never had seen in my life! The Holy Spirit has taken me to a hole different adventure! But at the same time I have been experiencing some moments of true despair and have not been able to do some things that I had planned to do like taking a class in Counseling it made me sad but had to refocus and make a new budget and start even selling home made carrot cakes. Got sick and had to stay home and not go to the gym, got depressed and felt worthless again.  A good friend of mine who's daughter and mine studied together is fighting breast cancer. None of these were in my plan for this year but it just came to pass.


So I feel like starting again and from scratch, but the good in all is that the Lord always puts people in our path or does something different to get our attention and let us know that His plans always come forth and always  are for the best to come out! 


My plans are to keep loving the Lord with all my soul! Praying and asking Him to use me in a big way! Praying that I will be able to see my friend soon good and well!


I think I have to have my plans open for God to write them down and make them work on me! The moments that have been bad planning the Lord has turned them into some moments of good so I just keep trusting the Lord that His plans are for good and not for bad! His plans are for eternity!


So plans come and go but God and his word are forever! Trust Him and we'll see His greatness in our lives!


Blessings!


With love,


Evelyn