Spring Heart Cleaning

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Spring is the time for cleaning; getting rid of the junk that has piled up through the winter and making room for the new. Spring is also a good time for searching our hearts, getting rid of the junk that may have settled there and making room for God to create in us a new spirit.

When I was growing up, every Saturday evening the family settled down in front of the TV to watch Gunsmoke. The show was set in the old western town of Dodge City, Kansas. Today I still enjoy watching Gunsmoke and seeing my favorite episodes again. As anyone who ever watched Gunsmoke knows, the Marshall had a girlfriend… and her name was Miss Kitty. Miss Kitty ran one of the many saloons in Dodge known as the Longbranch Saloon. The relationship between Matt and Kitty was more than a friendship but not, by any means, a hot romance…though at times she wanted it to be.

In one of my favorite episodes, Miss Kitty was mad. She was upset, fed up and out of sorts with everybody…especially Matt Dillon. She had been looking forward to an annual event in Dodge: a dance called the Promenade…but word had gotten back to her that Matt would be out of town and unable to attend. When he finally confronted her about the reason for her anger he tried to reassure her by telling her that his friends, Doc and Chester, would be glad to accompany her to the dance. He had business to attend to and he couldn’t get out of it. She would just have to understand.

But there was no understanding left in her this time. “Maybe I don’t want to go with Doc and Chester,” she told him. “I want to go with you.” She showed him the beautiful new dress she had bought for the occasion…then she opened her closet. It was full of dresses…dresses she had bought for other occasions…dances and trips that never happened…because he was too busy. “This is not just a closet full of dresses,” she told him, ” it’s a closet full of disappointments.”

How many of us have a heart today that, like Miss Kitty’s closet, is full of disappointments, unfulfilled hopes and dreams that never happened? Have these events and others built up until we are fed up? Relationships, romantic or otherwise, are never easy. We all suffer disappointments and regrets. I am married to a man who was always busy and not always able to attend every event that I wanted him to. Many times it has taken much prayer and consoling from Jesus in order to keep bitterness from setting in…There’s nothing like a good heart cleaning to get this done.

Spring cleaning involves going deeper than we do in our everyday housework in order to cut the grime and remove stains…to make our home look and feel new. Deep cleaning involves going into areas where we might find spider webs and germs growing. A good heart cleaning takes more than a hastily spoken prayer no matter how sincere. It takes us out of our comfort zone and forces us to look at ourselves as God sees us.

Disappointments are only one of many events that can cause bitterness and ungodly feelings in the hearts of man. Most of us prefer to deny and try to hide our hurts from others, but as 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us: …for the Lord seeth not as man seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Let’s ask Him as in Psalm 139: 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

As we allow God to open our hearts and reveal things that are keeping us from being and doing our best to honor Him, let’s look at Hebrews 4: 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

We have Jesus Christ, the great healer in whom we have professed to believe.

15 For we have not a high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

As we search the deep hollows of our hearts, we can ask Him to repair any hurts, cuts and bruises left from our contacts with others. As footprints of disappointments and stains of stress are removed, we can once again see clearly what His plan and purpose in our journey with Him is…and we learn to forgive others as he forgave us.

In the story of Miss Kitty, she met another man, but in the end came to the conclusion that, though he sometimes disappointed her, she could never find a better man than Matt Dillon.

John 3: 17 For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

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