What's In Your Closet? Part 1 of 6

As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. Proverbs 27:19 (NIV)

I love acrostics. As I get older, I have noticed more and more I have to play games with myself to learn something new or remember something specific. Using the word CLOSET I found there are some simple but important lessons to be learned by looking at each letter of the word.

C Candid - revealing the real me. How many times do we look into the mirror and have that deep question lurking; the one that causes us to ask who that person is I am staring at? If you were to pretend your life is like your personal closet, what or who would people see? Are there things in your life you would rather nobody ever knows about? Is there anger, selfishness, pride, laziness, or self-gratitude? Take a moment to look into your heart, into that personal closet of yours and be candid. What do you see? Is there so much clutter there that nobody can see the real you?

When was the last time you cleaned out your closet? Is there a pile on the floor and are there years of clothes; mismatched or too small or too big, cluttering it up? Why are you hanging on to some of the items? What is missing in all that clutter? Why don't you clean it up? Our closets reveal the real person to whom the items belong. We can come out of our closets looking pretty good, but when the door closes, the clutter remains inside. Nobody is allowed in. In our hearts, we know we hate being in there.

Mark 7:21-23 gives us a list of some pretty disgusting sins that come from within a man's heart. It goes on to say that all these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.

We all love looking at a picture with a lake reflecting the beauty of the surrounding nature. If we were to hang our head over the end of a dock and look into the water, we would see a reflection of our face. Our verse says, "so a man's heart reflects the man." The heart reveals the real me; the real you.

If you were to be candid - honest, is your personal closet holy, pleasing to God? Are the things of the world important to you; more important than God? It is hard to see and know God's will when our vision is cluttered. Just as we lose sight of things in a cluttered closet, we can lose sight of God when we allow sin to clutter our hearts. Sin is anything that does not please God. Allowing our minds to dwell on evil, and having wrong thoughts and desires will lead to sin.

God's desire for us is this. Romans 12:1-2 says "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

So, let's be candid. What does your heart reflect about you?

Heavenly Father, may it be our desire to be honest with You and honest with ourselves. Reveal to us the sin and clutter, and help us to live lives that are holy and pleasing to You.

Janet Stutzman