Spring Cleaning

If you are ready for real change to take place in your life, I invite you to pray the following prayer (you can customize it to fit your own particular needs):

"Lord, cleanse the temple of my heart, by turning over the tables that I have stacked with defiling gains, unrighteous objects, and selfish pursuits; drive out anyone who leads me to sin –not allowing true worship to occur. In your precious and holy name, I pray –amen."

This should be our initial prayer when we realize that the fullness of the Godhead (Deity) wants our hearts back! However, often times we have neglected to keep our "temples" in order, allowing sin to dwell in it (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17); we have filled our hearts with all kinds of unclean possessions and ungodly achievements. It's time for a major "Spring-cleaning" job to take place –and there's only one Person who can do that: Jesus Christ, "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9, NASB). We need to grant Him an "all-access pass" into every area of our beings, handing Him the keys, permanently.
As we begin to think about God abiding in our hearts, many passages of Scripture take on a whole new meaning –as the passage cited above, on the first letter to the Corinthians, which speaks about each and every believer as being "a temple of God," where His Spirit dwells. On that same train of thought, the apostle continues with the parallel of our hearts as temples, and concludes by asking a question, followed by a bold statement: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
No one in their right mind dares to defile a temple! People would not dare to drink liquor or smoke a cigarette, as they walk into a church –for such action is understood as disrespectful. However, when it comes to our bodies–which are temples of God–hardly anyone of us stops to think about the ramifications of our actions and poor choices. How the things that we eat and drink, and the many habits we pick up along the way, can (and often do) easily defile our beings.
Therefore, our responsibility is great, as temples of God where His Holy Spirit wants to dwell. We ought to pay close attention to our actions, and how we treat our bodies, not only when it comes to the things we ingest through our mouths, but also those that sip into our minds by our sight and our hearing. King Solomon emphasized this, by saying: "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life" (Proverbs 4:23). While it is our duty to guard our hearts, it is only Jesus who can put it in order. Let us, therefore, allow Him to come in and transform our habitation into one that is worthy of a King.

Your friend,
Abner E. Aguilar