Sugar Fast Day 32
Every Friday I tell myself that I am going to clean my house over the weekend. Every Saturday I let my desire to NOT clean my house rule my actions. So, most weekends I spend doing anything but cleaning my house. This weekend no different. I know I need to clean my house. I know I will feel better once my house is clean, but I don’t want to clean my house.
Yet there is a seed of thought in my head that will probably bloom into a clean house. My home is a gift from God. My family and I are blessed to live in a beautiful, spacious, warm house.
This morning I was reading in the Gospel of John:
“The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple complex He found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and He also found the money changers sitting there. After making a whip out of cords, He drove everyone out of the temple complex with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!”, And His disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for Your house will consume Me.” (John 2:13-17)
God’s Temple
While my house is not God’s temple, it has been entrusted to me. It is a blessing from God who gives good gifts and blesses His children. (James 1:17) Can cleaning and caring for my home be an expression of my love for Him? What about my body? Am I truly caring for myself as an outpouring of love for God? As a believer, I am sealed with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:21-22) and my body is now the temple:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Cor. 6:20)
So, although my lazy flesh would rather do anything besides cleaning and would love to jump off this fast-wagon and go get coffee and donuts, I love God more. I love God more than a dusty house, coffee and donuts. I can even clean my house and take care of my body with enthusiasm.
“Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men”. (Colossians 3:23)