It's spring! In the name of “spring-cleaning” I've been attacking some shelves in the basement and came across a long-forgotten, unused, Christmas gift—a set of knives.
I don't remember how many years ago I received those knives, or why they got relegated to the basement. My hunch is that I didn't have a place for them in the kitchen at the time, and as often happens, I needed to get things cleaned up in a hurry so stashed them on a shelf in the basement until I could make a place. As life's distractions occupied my mind, I simply forgot about them.
However, I'm delighted to have found them. I can really use them since my current knives are old and rather dull. I also found several other useful items that I'd forgotten I had. Such finds make spring cleaning a far more enjoyable task—kind of like Christmas in April!
As I was reveling in my new-found gifts, I began to think about how I could have been using these items all along, making some kitchen tasks easier. But, unfortunately, there they were, sitting on a shelf in my basement, and of no use to me. It was as if I didn't even have them all that time. Yet, they were there, available to me, just waiting to be used.
I began to think of other things in my life that are available to me, but going unused. In particular, I began focusing on all that God has given us as believers in Jesus–“for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8).
Through God's grace we've been given the gift of God. That gift, called salvation, was offered to us and we said, “Yes.” At that point, God put in us a “new heart” that opens up a whole new world of promises and gifts available to us through Jesus’ power (Ezekiel 11:19-20).
It's like there are lots of shelves in this “new heart” where all the gifts are stored. They’re ours—we possess them—but unfortunately, many of them can remain unused, either because we don't know they're there, or because we've forgotten about them. We learn about them through the study of the Bible, and use them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
But there's a catch in this story: “As we learn about the gifts that are ours, we have to want to use them and make them a part of our lives. This, however, is where the glorious secret comes in: God causes us to want to use the gifts, and then empowers us to do so. It's a joint effort between God and each of us.
Unfortunately, as in any good story, there’s a villain–an antagonist–trying to interfere and spoil things. And in the story of our lives it's no different. Our own self will can be our biggest enemy (influenced by Satan's deceptions). Rather than use God's gifts to live according to His plan for us (experiencing peace, joy, happiness, significance, purpose, etc. in the midst of life's trials), we are deceived into thinking we can live life according to our own desires and in our own strength. Often we don’t even recognize we’re trying to live in our own power, and as a result, we ignore or are oblivious to God's gifts.
What's the solution? A Spring Cleaning of the Heart! Let's rediscover those unused gifts that are setting on the shelves in our “new hearts.” Pick them up, dust them off, and look in the User’s Manual to find out how to use them through His empowering strength!
As a result, we can all have a Merry April Christmas as we do spring cleaning in our hearts and find the unused treasures of God's gifts!
