What was living in my fridge

The unwanted surprise came yesterday. I was moving things around in the fridge to make room for something when I spied the cream cheese. It was hiding in the back on the top shelf behind the butter. How long had that been there, I wondered. I had forgotten all about the cream cheese which I love to spread on toast or bagels. I shouldn’t have been so quick to pop open the lid, for there to greet me was a smear of blue fuzzy mold. Gross! I snapped the lid back on and threw that thing away! Why did I let that happen, I asked myself. What a waste of something so delicious. I didn’t mean to let it go bad. I just forgot it was there.

It was then I thought about the state of our spiritual hearts. Our desire is to keep them clean before God. We don’t mean to ignore the condition they may get in. We don’t want our hearts to become tainted by anything ungodly. We want to be holy, not just appear that way on the outside, like the shiny plastic container of the cream cheese. We don’t want to be found with the mold of sin on the inside. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We want sensitive ears to hear His voice when He informs us we’re going the wrong way, behaving unloving, forgetting the ways of our Father. We want the right things, the holy things, the things that please our Father and fill us with the greatest of joy of peace.

We crave it, but how to have it? The Apostle Paul shares the secret to keeping a clean heart. It’s found in Romans 12:1-2, “And so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Every morning when we wake, an effective prayer can be: Father, I give you all of me today. By Your Holy Spirit, guard my thoughts. Let my words be pleasing to You. Guide my feet. Fill me afresh, Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen.