What’s in YOUR attic?

Not long ago I did a real nasty job for my daughter and her husband. I cleaned their attic of bat waste !  Before and during the time they’d owned this home bats had infiltrated their attic and obviously “made themselves to home”.  So I volunteered to rid  the attic of their putrid excrement and I must say it was not the most pleasurable of tasks I’ve ever done !     Nonetheless even in this there is a spiritual lesson !!

Throughout the course of your day your mind is subjected to all kinds of filth. Some you are faced with immediately and through no fault of your own and then you have a quick decision to make, do you dwell on it or not?  For example, you can be driving down the highway and see a filthy billboard, do you allow the image to stir up evil passions in you or do you look away?  The same could be true while watching TV or surfing the internet.  Or how about, someone gossips, do you join in or refrain?   Or you see or think of someone who has been hurtful to you in some way, do you take the high road or do you wish them evil in your mind or think bitter thoughts?

Yes, our minds can be an “attic” to collect all kinds of repugnant things, and this is key: if we allow our minds to be such receptacles.  However there is a spiritually healthy option, namely, we can make sure we are cleansing our mind routinely.  Paul wrote this, “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom.12:2).

Interesting that in the Greek Paul literally wrote: “STOP being conformed” !  These early believers, just like us, had problems with worldly contaminants too.  But the antidote for real cleansing was and remains the renewal of the mind by letting the Word in the mind and allowing it to be our focus.  This transformation (the Greek word here gives us the English ‘metamorphosis’) takes what’s vile and changes it for the better, to be more like Christ !  So instead of thinking stinky thoughts we contemplate more wholesome ones.  Never underestimate the cleansing power of reading your Bible regularly.   If you have gotten away from that, start today a commitment to the Lord to read it for at least the next three weeks each day and watch how better you think and act !   Clean up”the attic” and the rest of the “house” will be WELL !!