Do you ever have something in your house that's been a certain way so long you stop noticing it? A project that hasn't been finished, an item that's out of place etc. It has been there and you have become so used to seeing it that it doesn't even stand out to you any more. At first you noticed it every time you saw it and thought I really need to do something about that, but other more important things took your time and it continued to sit there. Before you knew it, it began to blend in and you rarely even notice it or think about it any more! Until you stop and look at your house through someone else's perspective! You are having a big event at your house and you want everything to look nice and you stop and look at your home the way you think others will see it and now it's there again, you notice it!
I think many times our hearts can be the same way! We have an area of our life that we know needs to change! At first it really bothers us and we know we need to allow God to work in that area of our life! We put forth a little effort to change things and may even make some progress, but other commitments and priorities pull at our time and we think we'll get back to it and take care of it later! For awhile, every time we struggle with that area, it bothers us and we think, that's not pretty, I really need to do something about it. Tomorrow I'm going to start focusing on allowing God to change me in this area, or next week when I'm done tackling this or when we're done with this commitment! Then, I'll get to taking care of that! But, guess what, after a while those thoughts, actions, attitudes, etc that shouldn't be there in our hearts become such a habit that we don't even think about them that much any more when they surface! They've been there so long that we walk right by them and don't even realize that we have a problem any more! Until we stop and evaluate our lives through God's perspective! Suddenly we'll be placed in a position where God confronts us with an area that He wants to work on and we realize that we've been carrying this "issue" around and forgot it was even there! But, God wants our hearts to be prepared for Him! He doesn't ask us to be perfect, but he wants us to always be in this process of allowing Him to be cleaning out our hearts!
It's so much better than when we feel the need to get our houses all ready because someone is coming over because all we have to do with Him is invite Him to come in and allow Him to do the work! Yes, it does take effort and commitment on our part to partner with Him! But, we don't have to get it all ready for Him to come in! We just have to be willing to part with the clutter He wants to dispose of! Things that have been sitting around for way too long and have just become part of our hearts and we don't even see them there any more!
I really want to look at my heart through God's perspective and stop overlooking my bad attitudes, habits, thoughts etc and allow Him to begin to "clean house"! God open my eyes to the clutter that's sitting around in my heart! Help it to stand out like a sore thumb so that I will allow you to begin that process of decluttering! Thank you that I don't have to do it alone! You do the work and I partner with you! Help me to stick with it to the end and not only take the work so far, leaving remnants of the clutter only half removed and then returning to it's original condition! All too often God I allow you to take the work so far and then it gets too hard or I get distracted by other things and when the work is not complete in an area I find that it just attracts all that stuff right back! Help me to allow you to remove my "clutter" and replace it with your works of beauty!
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