Have you ever cleaned your room as if you were on a special mission? You didn’t just make your bed—you vacuumed. You didn’t just dust—you stood on your tippy toes to dust that top shelf. You even sorted through clothes until you had bags full of stuff. And when you finished? You were ready to drop— exhausted. In your heart, though, you felt joyously proud of your sparkling clean room.

It felt brand-new.

Just as our rooms need cleaning, our hearts do too. The Bible says: “So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy, and hurtful talk” (1 Peter 2:1 MSG).

Bad habits do not disappear right away, even if Jesus lives inside of us. So we need to “clean house,” throwing out anything that keeps us from loving God and everyone around us.

Once you do, you’ll love the feel of your clean, new space.

Jesus, if there’s anything in my heart that needs to be cleaned out, please help me “clean house.”