Do you ever feel like it’s time to declare chemical warfare on your house? We’re constantly on the go in my house. With writing, cooking, laundry, lacrosse and football games to attend, church, homework to monitor, college applications to supervise, and so forth, I’m doing well to keep the piles of mail from overtaking us. I keep things fairly tidy, however, I still need to set aside a day to do the deep cleaning. You can only overlook things for so long before they begin to impact everyone. You have to clean regularly so you won’t become overwhelmed with filth. You have to stay on top of things.
King Hezekiah noticed the disrepair the temple of God had fallen into and he declared warfare on it [2 Chronicles 29]. He called together the Levites and the priests and told them to consecrate themselves to the Lord so they could then begin cleaning up the temple and consecrating it to the Lord as well. In verse five he states “consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.” Consecrate means to dedicate. He called them to dedicate themselves and the temple to the Lord again. They needed to do this because they had allowed things to enter the temple that were unclean, defiling it from its purpose.
We have the same thing happen to us without realizing it. We allow things to enter our minds and /or our bodies that don’t honor the Lord, thus they defile us. Just like with our physical homes, we need to clean our bodies, the temple of God, regularly to avoid being taken over [1 Corinthians 6:19]. We cannot tolerate defilement. The Hebrew word for defilement is niddah and it means impurity, filthiness, of idolatry, immorality. We must act as the gatekeepers of our minds and our bodies, only allowing that which honors God to enter.
The best way to keep a house clean and keep the workload from overwhelming you is to do a little each day. The same is true with keeping your body and mind pure. If we will take time daily to come before the Lord, asking Him to search us and reveal areas we need to clean, then we won’t wake up one day feeling overwhelmed and helpless by the mess we find [Psalm 139:23-24].
Effort is required to get the job done, but when you’re finished, it blesses everyone. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and start cleaning.