Inside Out

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45 NKJV

Have you ever taken your car to the car wash, and afterwards your clean car felt like a new car? It was shiny and pretty outside, but what if the inside was full of discarded candy wrappers, old food, dirty diapers, or other “stuff” that needed to be discarded?

One day, I grabbed a blouse in a hurry, only to find one sleeve inside out. Rather than take it off and fix it, I threw it on the floor angrily and grabbed another blouse to put on as I ran down the hall. Normally this would not have been an issue but since I was running late, it was that proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The situation brought my behavior to my attention. If what is inside came out in that behavior, I had better take a hard look at what was inside. I believe that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” but also the ATTITUDE and body language speak. I was clean on the outside, ready to appear in public, but was it well with my soul? Was the Holy Spirit comfortable inside my heart? Why was I so irritable? I certainly did not want my “inside” to be showing on my “outside”.

Jonah rebelled against God and chose to book passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, in the opposite direction of Ninevah, where God told him to go preach. God stirred up the seas, and the men on the outside deck threw crates of supplies overboard, but that did not stabilize their ship. The problem was discovered to be Jonah, inside the ship. Jonah was thrown overboard, the turmoil ended, and the sea was calm.

I had a rotten odor coming from my stove. I tried everything to find it, cover it up, but it continued to get stronger. Nothing got rid of the nauseous odor. A friend and I completely pulled out the drawer under the oven. Using a flashlight, we found the dead culprit deep inside a dark, hidden area. To reveal the problem, light was needed to shine into the darkness.

Jesus, sometimes we throw “stuff” off of our spiritual deck, we clean the outside of our spiritual car or clean our spiritual ovens to find there are dark issues deep inside. Help us surrender those dark, odiferous places inside, where hurt and emotional pain and un-forgiveness hide. Shine Your Light, Holy Spirit, and cleanse all of the deeply buried issues that cause unpleasant odors inside us that are offensive to You. May we be a sweet fragrance to You, and may those around us smell the fragrance of Your beauty that comes from spending time in Your presence.