SpringCleaning! – a New Thing – March 6

SpringCleaning!
March 6, 2021

a New Thing

Isaiah 43:19, ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now! it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland (NIV).’

Out with the old; in with the new! That’s the next order of business in this SpringCleaning that we have underway. In everyone’s ‘Home’ (psyche, physique, soul, heart, being), there’s some ‘Past’ stored up in there, likely mixed up in all your other stuff. Everyone has got one whether we like to talk or think about it.
For some of us, our past is stuffed so well into all the crevices and nooks in our lives that we forget it’s there. You know, like out of sight, out of mind. Maybe if I stuff it just a little further, bury it even deeper in that cranny, I’ll forget I even had one of those buggers. Maybe it will never again rear its ugly head, right?
For others of us, our past occupies the spare room; kind of like if I ignore it, maybe it will go away. We love our spare rooms, don’t we? They are the catch-all niche where we take everything we don’t have another place for and we pile it high. Sometimes that catch-all gets so full it’s hard to even open or close the door. I’m just gonna shove it in that spare room of mine and I’ll deal with it later.
Even still, for another group of us, perhaps the past is spilling out of every room in your ‘house’ and you can barely even get inside anymore. The past has literally run you out of your own home. And forget inviting a new friend over or welcoming anything new inside. There’s no place to put anything fresh because the staleness, the unlovely, the revolting monstrosity of your past has sucked all the air from your ‘Home’.
It is impossible to SpringClean with your past in the way whether it’s spilling out from inside and taking over or buried so deep you think it has left for good. Because we have an enemy of our souls who loves to taunt us after he taints us, he will make sure that there is no room for anything improved; no getting away from what we are hiding from and being chased by if we allow it to characterize us. He wants you so cluttered with your past that there is where your focus is fixed. He wants it gossiping in your ear, playing tricks with your mind, haunting your sleep. In fact, your enemy will give your past any new forwarding address if you think you can move on and leave it behind. It will take up residency and list your name and address as its reference.
But, beautiful you, your past does not define you. Unless you let it. That is truly what it is…past, meaning past tense, passed on, not current or present. When our ‘Past’ becomes our ‘Present’ is when we choose to live in the midst of it still, allowing it residency, taking up all the extra space in your ‘Home’, dwelling beside it, accepting it as your roommate.
How do we dispose of our ‘Past’ while we are SpringCleaning so you can once more be in charge of your own ‘Home’? We begin by not giving it influence any longer in our lives. The only power our past has over us is what we give it. It cannot hold you hostage if you do not allow it to. You can kick it to the curb or throw it out in the dumpster (along with the spoiled food from your fridge) when you remind your enemy that he cannot use it against you for one second more. You tell him your past was buried in the nailpraints in Jesus’ hands, fastened to the same cross that canceled all your sin and bore your shame.
And on the day when you take your past out with the trash you will suddenly realize just how much more room you have inside for good things, pure things, positive vibes, and for Jesus, the Redeemer and Restorer of all that the enemy tried to steal from you. He is doing a new thing in your ‘Home’ and that starts with cleaning up your wasteland with a fresh outpouring of His grace.

Come with me in March and let’s clean house!
If you are anything like me, you have kept some things around far too long and now they got to go! And with the Lord’s help, they can!