From The Desk Of Pastor Ben
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. . . . Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit,
to sustain me.     (Psalm 51:10, 12) NIV

I went to college in central Florida. I had never spent any significant time there before so I didn’t know how damp it would be. My first clue was when the bedding in our dorm room began to smell musty. We stripped the sheets and pulled up the mattress and I scarcely could believe my eyes.
Mildew spotted the mattress, and water — enough to soak up with a sponge — covered the wooden base on which it rested. Thankfully, we discovered this on a sunny day, so we pulled the mattress outside where we cleaned and dries it. We scrubbed the base and then the maintenance people gave us some chemicals for us to treat the wood to prevent mildew from growing. Then they gave us some special fabric designed to allow airflow between the mattress and the base.
Then we checked the cupboards for mildew and sure enough — there it was. So we scrubbed and treated the cupboards with the same chemicals to prevent mildew from growing. But that wasn’t enough. We also had to run a dehumidifier every day to keep the mildew in check. It was a lot of work!
I wonder, do we, as believers, work as intentionally or as hard to ensure our hearts are clean from sin? We might be tempted to deny what’s hidden in our hearts or we might be too embarrassed or proud to uncover it, but that won’t work well for us.
Rather than letting sin exist and grow to our detriment, let’s invite the Holy Spirit to inspect us. When He exposes sin, let’s ask Jesus to wash us clean. Then let’s take preventive measures to ensure we don’t fall into the same trap again.
The effort is worth it, for a clean heart is a joyful heart.

Faith Step:     Read Psalm 51:10 and make this your prayer every day.