Tearing Down the Walls

There's something incredibly freeing about taking time to repent of all the little things in your life you can think of.  And thinking through every time you can remember you got angry, frustrated or bitter towards someone else recently - and forgiving them and those things in your heart.  

We set up small walls inside our heart through these negative actions, and over time they build up into fortresses that keep us from intimacy with our God.

Just as a car needs maintanence, so too we need regular checkups, clean-ups and oil changes.  We need to "no longer be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind" (Romans 12:2).  This renewing of our mind comes through repentance, forgiving others and adherence to the Word.  Our oil changes are not being "drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.  Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you" (Ephesians 5:18, NLT).  In the Greek this translates as "be being filled with the Holy Spirit."  Or continually be refilled with the Presence of God.  We make way for spiritual fill-ups by continuing to bore out the wells of our heart through repentance and forgiveness towards others.  

We shouldn't be surprised at our own lack, after all, our only grace is from Christ, not self.  We must accept that these regular spiritual tune-ups are a necessity of the spiritual walk.  We need more than to accept Christ into our hearts once for all, rather to cling to him out of dependance through the entirety of our lives.  Like a car or human body that sends warning signals when it needs a check up, spiritually we too can sense when we need to do some business with God.

Four things will make the spiritual tune-up difference, and tear down any walls between us and God:

1. Repent regularly, even of small things we can recall we have done.

2. Forgive others in our hearts regularly, even over small offenses we have felt.

3. Turn on worship music, enjoy God through prayer and his Presence.

4. Open the Word of God, study to be approved, store his Word in our hearts, do what it says.