I cleaned my pantry out the other day. I have been wanting to do this for months now. When we moved into this house, I had the first pantry that I had ever had. I did not know how I wanted to organize it nor when I put things in it did I want to think about getting rid of anything. I just wanted to put things away and figured I would deal with it “later.” I finally got to organizing and cleaning it the other day and it feels so good now to go in there and smell how fresh it smells and see how neat it is. I had two shelves for the things I have canned such as jam or applesauce, but had no shelf for the empty jars. I have a shelf for empty jars now. They used to be stashed into whatever empty spot there was. Another organizational mess.
This morning in Sunday school, we learned about the feast of Passover. Our teacher spent time in Israel studying and was able to see the customs before him. He told us about one family who would hide pieces of leavened bread around the house; the children then went around to find these pieces of bread. They would then take this bread to the temple and burn it. Leaven is a picture of sin in our lives. The point being made is how much we need to search out the sin in our lives, so that we can be clean before God.
The better we understand the depth of our sin; the greater we understand the depth of God’s grace.
The better we understand the depth of our sin; the greater our sanctification.
The disorganization, the clutter, and the dirt in my pantry bugged me for a long period of time. It wasn’t until a few days ago when I decided that no matter how long it would take or how much effort I would have to put in, the task needed to be completed.
Sin is the same in our lives. It may bother us, but we just keep dealing with it and looking for ways to co-exist with it. Even close the proverbial door on it so no on sees what is really going on inside. Hiding the sin does not make it go away. Closing the door to my pantry did not make the mess go away.
In order to really do business in our lives with sin, we must intentionally seek it out. Just as the children searched out the leavened bread before Passover, so we must search out the sin in our own lives. We must listen when someone points out sin in our lives. When we fail to listen and heed or fail to be sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we are proud and stubborn and harboring more sin.
If you came to my house you would think it looks pretty clean. I vacuum the floors and clean the bathrooms and make sure my kitchen is spotless. What if you had looked in my pantry, would you have thought the same thing?
“Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself…” (Daniel 1:8).
It started in Daniel’s heart. He wanted to be sure to remain clean before God no matter the circumstances. Each instance we encounter Daniel in the Bible, his sanctification is growing.
The better we understand the depth of our sin; the greater we see our sanctification growing.