Daily Devotional – 8/21/17 “Clean up your mess!”

Why should I have to tell your grown butt to clean up your mess? I am not just talking about throwing away the garbage from your lunch, cleaning your room, your car or etc., I am talking about everything. Baby, if you caused the mess, clean it up. It doesn’t matter if the mess is in your home and nobody sees it, clean it up. I don’t care if nobody else rides in your car, clean up the mess. If you have to make a call and apologize, clean it up. If it means confessing your part in the confusion, clean it up. If you have to delete that status and that group message you got going, clean it up. And, if you need to purchase some large garbage bags and get to work, do it. See, a lot of times, beloved, the mess is what’s keeping you from prospering. And the sad part about it is, you have been doing it so long that you no longer recognize it as mess. Oh but it is and you are just as filthy and dirty as the garbage can (physical and hypothetically). Are you not tired of being stanky, dirty and covered in mess? Are you not tired of having your hands in stuff? Are you not tired of leaving dirty footprints/fingerprints everywhere you go?

Well then, it’s time you clean it up, beloved. Why do you think no one wants to be around you? Why do you think the invitations have stopped or the calls being ignored. No one wants to sit in a room with mess. Think about it … would you want to sit next to a garbage pile that stinks while you’re enjoying your glass of wine? Would you want to eat dinner next to the garbage bag filled with remnants of last night’s dinner? Would you serve, in worship, next to a can filled with the leftovers of last week’s fellowship? Would you allow a filthy garbage can to sit next to the couch while you watch the latest TV show? I’m only asking. Please understand, I am in no way calling you garbage but when your insides are filled with mess, you start to stink like some. When your mouth is filled with jealousy, malice and hatred; your breath begins to stink like it. And it can be smelled from miles away. This is why I am telling you to clean it up. And if I am honest, I shouldn’t have to tell you because you should want to be clean. However, I am so clean it up. It says in my bible (what about yours?), in James 4:7-8, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” If that is not enough, read Psalm 24:3-4 which says, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.”