This year, I was so happy that Senior Pastor Lawrence and I made it home the day before Chinese New Year eve, in time to join our family for our annual reunion dinner and Chinese New Year festivities. We spent the next few days interacting and connecting with our family and relatives. After being away on multiple overseas trips, it felt so wonderful to have a time of catch-up with each family member during this season, amidst the usual fanfare of getting dressed in new clothes and spring cleaning our homes till they’re looking spanking new! Spring cleaning is the practice of thoroughly cleaning every nook and cranny of our homes before Chinese New Year, so that they not only look good on the outside, but also on the inside.
As I sat down to pen my thoughts for this week, God spoke to me to ask: “Are we in need of a spiritual spring cleaning?” Indeed, this is the time of the year when many of us spring clean the inside and outside of our homes, but what about inside our hearts? How many of us can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?” (Proverbs 20:9)
Dear disciples, since we put so much time and effort into cleaning our earthly homes, shouldn’t we do the same to our spiritual homes too? This week, let each of us respond to Paul’s exhortation in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
This Chinese New Year, I urge all of us to take a spiritual inventory to see if our spiritual homes are in need of spring cleaning.
- Senior Pastor Nina Khong