As temples of the Holy Spirit, we need the Lord’s full cleansing. We can stay clean by filling ourselves only with things that nourish our spirit.
If you’re like me, there are problems in your life that you have tried to ignore or tolerate for far too long. We can struggle along with these problems; we can limp through half-hearted attempts at a resolution. Often we ping and pong back and forth between hope and despair that our problems will ever fully be resolved. But if we’ll let Him, the Lord brings us to a point where we finally cry, “Mercy!” That is the point when we choose to face and deal with the problem once and for all. It’s a hard place. But it’s such an important place to get to. It’s where we relinquish our control over the problem and fully put it into God’s hands. Ultimately, it’s the place where we find His physical and spiritual cleansing.
The roots of the problem…
I’ve gotten to this place in my physical health, and the things I’m learning apply to my spiritual health as well. For years, I have struggled with stomach problems. The earliest roots of the problem wind their way back to my preteen and teenage years when I experienced an onslaught of emotional trauma. Over the course of my adolescence, my parents divorced; my dad died of a massive heart attack, and I bounced from one home to another, eventually living with six different foster families by the time I graduated high school.
Throughout all those emotionally unsettling years, my stomach was very upset. Seemingly out of nowhere, I became lactose intolerant; I had severe acid reflux and heartburn. And throughout the years, the problems gradually intensified. I was diagnosed with IBS. More and more foods began to bother me, causing severe abdominal cramping, skin rashes, headaches… You name the gastrointestinal symptom, I’ve had it. Now, before this post starts to sound like a script for all the possible side effects on your average pharmaceutical commercial, let’s take this analogy in a spiritual direction!
I need a cleansing…
I need an overhaul, a cleansing. I’m tired of limping through life, just coping with this problem that has plagued me for decades. And I’m not willing to settle for a partial solution, some band aid prescription that will just tame the symptoms temporarily. I want to get down to the root causes of what’s going on in my system and work to repair and heal all that I can. So, this the point where I turn it over to the Lord.
I know that He can help me to heal, and He’s provided everything I need to heal in His creation. It’s just a matter of my committing to the process and being unwilling to accept anything less that than a full recovery. As such, I’m beginning a six week dietary cleanse, a detox, a resetting of my gut, with the expected end of healing. So, here’s the spiritual tie in. Hopefully it provides some “food for thought.”
What we put into ourselves matters…
With food, when we’re hungry, we can reach for the cookies, or we can opt for a nutrient dense snack. And the effects in our body will reflect the choices we make. When it comes to our soul and spirit, what we feed ourselves matters too. In every moment, there are choices we can make. When I wake up, do I reach for my Bible and journal and get still before the Lord? Or do I grab for my cell phone with my calendar and my to do list? The first choice feeds my spirit with the fortification I will inevitably need throughout the day. The second choice fills me with stress and anxiety over all that I need to accomplish.
When I have a brief span of peace and quiet in the afternoon, do I intentionally reach for an inspirational book or encouraging blog post? Or do I absentmindedly scroll through social media, comparing my life to everyone else’s and feeling like I don’t measure up? When I’m tired at the end of a long day, do I reach for the remote and binge watch some reality tv show where other people are pursuing their creative dreams? Or do I work on a song I’m writing or watch a sermon from a speaker or pastor I like? All of these little choices matter because they have immediate and cumulative effects in my mind, my soul, and my spirit. What am I feeding my spirit?
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, KJV
Filling my temple…
If I’m filling my temple full of worldly wisdom, carnal desires, and earthly comparison…I’m bringing things into the temple that are not holy and acceptable to the Lord. When I renew my mind with the Word of God, nourish my soul with uplifting music, and keep my mind on things above rather than on things below, I’m filling my temple with things that are life-giving. I’m building my temple up rather than tearing it down. And if what we put into ourselves matters, we know that what comes out will reflect what we have put in.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Luke 6:45, KJV
Removing the blockages…
I’ve learned something very interesting in my health journey: Even if I’m eating very healthy foods, if I still have underlying issues in my gut, I can’t even absorb the good nutrients that I’m trying to get from the healthy food I’m eating. So, until I fully heal my gut, no matter how healthy I’m trying to be, I will still suffer from the same symptoms.
The spiritual side of this coin looks very similar. Even if we are trying to put the right things into our spirit man, if we still have underlying sin–unforgiveness, resentment, anger, envy–the sermons from church and scriptures from the Bible can’t fully sink in. We must remove the blockages in our spirit that prevent the Truth from fully penetrating our heart.
Just as a detox diet or a cleanse is meant to clear out the garbage lingering in our physical system, when we realize we have unaddressed sin, we have to turn our temple over to the Lord for His complete cleansing. Click To Tweet
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9, KJV
Keeping the temple clean…
And once He has cleansed us, we have to be vigilant to keep our temples clean. So, when I finish this six week reset of my gut microbiome, the goal isn’t to then go out and gorge myself on all the junk food I’ve been craving. The point is to identify and eliminate the foods that hurt me and to only reintroduce the foods that are healthy and nourishing to my system.
And so it goes with our faith walk. We need to pay close attention to the things we’re watching, the relationships we’re maintaining, and the thoughts we’re thinking. If they have been toxic to our faith, we have to identify and eliminate the things that don’t serve us. And once we are fully cleansed, we are better equipped to handle the more difficult things in life because we’re approaching them with a clean heart. Let’s follow the Word’s prescription for the kind of pure, clean diet we need to feed our spirit:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8, KJV
What kind of diet have you been feeding your spirit lately? Are there things that you need to be cleansed of?
