Oh, No! Don’t Open That Door!

“Oh No, Don’t Open That Door!”

“Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:12-14

When we were children, we used to listen to a radio show, called “Fibber McGee and Molly.” I do not remember all the episodes, but I do remember the ones about the closet. Fibber needs his dictionary which is in the hall closet. When Molly opens the door, she finds herself buried in a mountain of oddments and junk from over the years. The phrase “Fibber McGee’s closet” has come to mean a source of clutter, especially a messy area or room.

I am sure all of us have closets, cupboards, or other places in our home where we put things away just to get them out of sight. Periodically, we pull everything out, and usually end up putting most of it back. There are things we have not used in years, and yet we just can’t make ourselves get rid of them.

As we deal with cleaning our spiritual lives this week, let us peek inside the closets in our hearts. Clutter does not accumulate all at once, little by little it builds up. If we are honest, we will find clutter that should just go.

For starters:

• Old hurts – all of us have experienced times when someone has said something to hurt us. It is not easy to rise above those feelings, but if we let them, they will keep us from being our best. Take them out of the closet and give them to Jesus.
• Fears – Over the last two years there have been times when the enemy has tried to fill our hearts with fear as Covid has swept our country. We forget that God is in control and our lives are in His hands.
• Doubt – how often have you opened your prayer closet and found doubt lingering there. Doubt that the Lord hears your prayers and that He cares about you. That is clutter that has to go.
• Unforgiveness – file folders in our mind that we look through from time to time, knowing that we should just make up our minds to forgive the wrongs and toss those files in the trash where they belong.
• Secret sins – I hope we do not find any of those in our closet today. Think of David who was described as a man after God’s own heart, and yet in a moment of temptation, he yielded to sin, instead of running from it.

As we ask the Lord to search our hearts, He will reveal to us the clutter that is there, that hinders us from being the child He wants us to be. He loves us, He is merciful, and His blood will cleanse our hearts anew, as we seek His face.

Prayer: Jesus, we humbly bow before you, opening wide the door of our hearts. Show us what is there and help us to get rid of everything that is not pleasing to you.

Devotion by Anne Johnston