Remember the days, as a kid, when your parent told you to “clean your room” before you could enjoy whatever else you had your heart set to do? That directive has been floating around in my head for a day or so. “Clean your room.”

Which room is most important? “Create in me a clean heart, O God!” [Psalm 51:10]

The most recent cleaning task at our house was cleaning the inside and outside of our windows. We had not cleaned them since we moved into our home six years ago. Having a two-story house, we had quite a few to tackle. Yet, amazingly, with each window, our view became much clearer. What a good feeling!

More seriously, I’m focusing of the ‘windows’ of the heart. Unless my heart’s view is biblically pure, I’m subject to much “stinking thinking.” Consequently the home of my heart becomes a place of complaint, unbelief, pride, unkind perspective of others, and more. Oh, how my windows need purified cleansing!

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean…” [Psalm 51:7] Hyssop was one of the extreme cleansing agents used often in contact with leprosy or dead bodies. It symbolized the washing with the blood of Jesus. David declared that he must be cleansed both inside and out to be renewed with a right spirit.

As we washed our windows, we would notice that one side of the window would appear just a bit dusty. While cleaning the other side of our windows, we’d learn that we had to wash more than twice to remove accumulated grime. We found two holes in a screen. How easily we had been misled that our viewpoint had been previously clear and that perspective had been well screened.

Regular cleansing needed.

“Above all else, guard your heart; for out of it flow the issues of life…” [Proverbs 4:23]