Last weekend, in the process of a little weekend cleaning, I decided to undertake the dreaded refrigerator and cabinet clean-out. Let’s just say, it wasn’t pretty. I’m probably fortunate I didn’t encounter anything living.

What I did encounter, however, was plenty of half-used, long-expired foodstuffs which had probably passed their “safe to eat” date sometime during the disco era, along with shelves caked with gunk that would have stumped a CSI team.

The massive effort was, in part, to prepare for an overdue shopping trip. To know what we needed to prepare for the week’s meals, I needed to first take stock what we had.

And, admittedly, too often I have let the condition of my heart take on the appearance of my over-cluttered refrigerator.

When we’re down and despairing, wondering where the Lord is in our troubles, and feeling distant in our relationship with Him, it’s a worthwhile time to open the refrigerator door of our hearts, and dig through the crud, the muck, and expired clutter we’ve been holding onto that does not belong there.

James chapter 4 offers a pointed rebuke of what happens when we allow our hearts to become like the inside of an over-cluttered refrigerator.

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?,” James writes (v. 1-3). “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

James makes it clear there’s a lot of really ugly junk in those hearts that should have been thrown away a long, long time ago, and a lot of deep scrubbing that needs to be done. It’s a hard look in the mirror that often we don’t want to undertake but is necessary if we want a right relationship with God.

So, what does it take to clean out the refrigerator of our hearts?

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:8-10)

In short, cleansing our hearts requires a willingness to be humble and expose our brokenness to the Lord. We have to open the door to our hearts and let God throw the junk out.

Or, as the writer of Hebrews says, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles...” (Heb. 12:1b)

In Galatians, Paul gives us a great list of the things living in our fridge that we need to throw out right away. “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” (Galatians 5:19-21a)

A thorough deep cleaning is never a fun process, and no doubt a messy one. But a good spiritual deep-cleaning is always a worthwhile endeavor.

Daniel Kiewel is a reporter for the Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune. He can be reached at dkiewel@gbtribune.com.