Nancy Hughes: Getting rid of the stink

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

Psalm 119:11 (NIV)

There’s an old pair of tennis shoes in my garage that I wear when I mow or work in the yard. You may have a pair like them: shoelaces broken and tied together, grass stains accented with rips, one or two tiny pebbles caught in the tread (what’s left of the tread) along with remnants of “gifts” shared by the neighborhood cat.

One day my grandkids decided to help me straighten up my house and somehow those wonderful tennis shoes got tossed in my closet without my knowledge. The next morning when I opened the closet door, the stench that hit me in the face nearly knocked me over.

It permeated the whole closet including my clean clothes and the other shoes. I only needed a matter of seconds to pinpoint the source of the smell and throw the offending shoes out on the deck. However, even though the shoes were gone from the closet, the horrible smell remained.

I aired out the closet for a whole day and then hung an air freshener in it. The thing was, even though the tennis shoes had been removed for hours, they still left an odor that required me to put another and another and another air freshener in the closet until it was completely gone.

The horrible odor had to continually be replaced with the clean fragrance of the air fresheners. Thankfully it eventually worked!

It occurred to me while I repeatedly changed air fresheners in my bedroom closet that I also needed to allow the Lord to clean out those smelly tennis shoes from the closet in my heart. Let me explain.

When the tennis shoe smell says “God doesn’t even know I exist,” Psalm 139:17-18 says “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”

When the stench hints that “God doesn’t care about my life and what I do,” Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The horrible odor whispers “She should never have said that about you. You have a right to be angry and to hold it against her.” But we read in Matthew 18:22 that Jesus answers Peter’s question if seven times is enough to forgive someone with “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Don’t let Satan’s lies hang around in the closet of your heart. Replace his stench with God’s truth and love. And remember, too, that the “air freshener” you hang up only works so long without needing to be renewed.

In other words, praying once or twice about negative thoughts and then thinking you don’t have to bother with them any more is not true, because Satan doesn’t stop attacking. You have to constantly be in the Word to stand strong against him.

Dig through the closet of your heart, find all those stinky shoes and give them a toss! Don’t forget to replace them with the sweet fragrance of God’s words of love and encouragement.

Father, so many times I allow the liar to creep into my thoughts and speak untruths to my heart. Forgive me and help me to focus on you and your truth. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

Why do you think you allow Satan to attack you with lies?

Do you have Scripture memorized to stand against the attacks?

Apply

Journal each “stinky shoe” that you struggle with in your heart.

Beside each entry, journal a Scripture that shares God’s promise for that struggle.

Power

Psalm 119:11 (NIV) “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

II Corinthians 2:15 (NIV) “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

(For more of Nancy Hughes' writing, check out her blog, Encouragement from the War Room.)