Cleanse: Week 1
CLEANSE WEEK 1: CLEAN UP
Cleansing is a picture - a metaphor of God renewing our minds so that our thoughts, habits, and relationships are scrubbed, free from the ‘patterns and ways of this world’, and reshaped by the Spirit of Christ’s ways.
As that inner cleansing happens, we become more able to discern and actually enjoy God’s good, pleasing, and preferred way of life.
Romans 12:1-2 NIV: [1] Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship. [2] Do not conform 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.
This passage calls believers to stop being squeezed into the world’s mold and instead be invited into a new way of living by different patterns, principles, and procedures.
Renewing is like a deep spiritual cleansing where God replaces old ways of thinking with new, Christ-shaped patterns, so we can ‘test and approve’ HiS WAYS
Psalm 51:1-10 NIV: [1] For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. [2] Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. [3] For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. [4] Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. [5] Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. [6] Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. [7] Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. [8] Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. [9] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. [10] Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Ezekiel 36:25-26 NIV: [25] I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. [26] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh or (new spirit within you).
Clutter - Lack of Storage
I need the leading of the Spirit to cleanse the clutter of bitterness, envy, gossip, and hidden sin from my heart. Let the Spirit of God lead the way for us in forgiving debts, reconciling, and cutting off toxic influences that pull us from Christ.
Renewing the mind in practice.
Cleansed to live toward others.
As God creates in me a ‘clean heart’ and a ‘willing spirit’, I can step into the new spaces as a living sacrifice—offered to God and poured out for others in every-day acts of service, hospitality, encouragement, and joyful living!
Closing Prayer
Holy and merciful God, in view of Your great mercy, I offer myself to You.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right and steadfast spirit within me.
Cleanse the clutter of my mind and heart—the bitterness, envy, gossip, fear, and hidden sins— and wash me in the truth of Your Word.
By Your Spirit, do not let me be conformed to the patterns and pressures of this world, but transform me by the renewing of my mind in Christ.
Give me a new heart and a new spirit; take away my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh that loves what You love and desires what You desire.
Lead me into Your good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Let this cleansing show in my relationships—less harshness, more blessing; less score‑keeping, more forgiveness; less self‑protection, more sacrificial love.
Today I yield myself as a living sacrifice—my body, my mind, my habits, my schedule, my relationships—holy and pleasing to You.
Send me out as a cleansed person, living joyfully, serving gladly, so that the life of Christ may be seen in me in every place You send me.
Because of Your cleansing work in me, I rejoice to live for You.
With a glad and willing heart, I choose Your ways over my own.
Let my thoughts, my words, and my actions be filled with joy in serving You, that my whole life may declare: Jesus, You are my greatest joy and my deepest delight, today and always.
In Jesus’ name I confess and pray, Amen.
