This is the time of year when many people take on spring cleaning projects inside and outside their homes. But since we put so much time and effort into cleaning our worldly residence, shouldn’t we also do some spiritual spring cleaning?
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What is a Spiritual Spring Cleaning?
A spiritual spring cleaning is when we take stock of our spiritual lives to clean out our hearts and souls. This can include our prayers, our relationship with God, our views on the world around us, how we treat others, our sense of purpose, or anything else that impacts your spiritual life.
If we desire clean hearts, we must start by asking for them. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me,” (Psalm 51:10). After we’ve prayed for guidance, we need to wade into the clutter and grime of our hearts—and let the cleaning begin!
Spiritual Spring Cleaning in 4 Steps
1. Scan for big problems you might have overlooked.
Take some time to think through the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2–17) in the Bible. Are there any you’re not living out fully? If you find you’re tripping over one of these, confess it—and ask God to sweep, or spiritually spring clean, your sin away.
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2. Dust off your irritations.
Think of the things (or people) that annoy you regularly, and ask yourself if anything is going on in your own heart that contributes to the problem. To do your spiritual spring cleaning, let go of the negative things in your life and invite the positive ones in—like peace, hope, and love. And remember, “[love] is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
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3. Consider the clutter of your days.
What could you fling from your life that’s cluttering your relationship with God? One TV show a day? A tidbit of gossip when you get together with friends? An indulgence that might be cultivating a spirit of selfishness? Look to the small things. The Bible warns us that it’s “the little foxes that ruin the vineyards” (Song of Solomon 2:15).
4. Contemplate what’s lacking.
What we fail to do often depletes our spiritual health as much as what we do wrong. We want to be among those to whom Christ says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me’” (Matthew 25:35-36). As you do your spiritual spring cleaning, think of what more you can do in your life to help others and live with spiritual wellbeing.
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Bible Verses about Spiritual Spring Cleaning
- Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
- Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7)
- For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
- Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup so that the outside of the cup will be clean too. (Matthew 23:26)
- Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from sin. (Proverbs 20:9)
- There is nothing unclean of itself but to him that sees anything unclean, to him it is unclean. (Romans 14:14)
READ MORE: How to Pray These Bible Verses for Spring Cleaning
God longs to purify you from your sins, to wash you and make your heart “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7)…every season of the year. Take the steps to undergo a spiritual spring cleaning and it will benefit your life through the spring season and beyond.
