A Clean But Empty Life

Matthew 12: 43 – 45 (NIV): "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."

God never intended for us to live a clean, but empty, life. Cleaning up our acts will never work. If we run out one evil spirit, Jesus said, it will not only come back, but it will bring friends. It will return and find our hearts wide open, ready to be re-occupied.

A young man came to talk to me one sunny afternoon. We sat on the patio with a couple of glasses of tea and he told me how sick of his life he was. He was “turning over a new leaf”. He was going to get off drugs, get back into church, and clean up his act. He was truly excited about his decision to straighten up, and he was absolutely determined to do so. But as I listened, I thought of this passage. It became painfully obvious that he had no intention of filling his heart with God's Spirit, he simply wanted to get clean and go straight. I knew it would never work and it didn't. He is in prison now because he not only went back to his old life, he got even worse.

I think this is exactly what Jesus was talking about in this scripture. He doesn't want us to be religious – there were plenty of religious people all around him as he said this – he wants us to have a relationship with God. There's a huge difference. God doesn't want your heart to be clean and empty, he wants it to be full – of him! I've heard it said, “Rules without relationship lead to rebellion.” That applies to parenting, but it also applies to faith.

How do we fill our hearts with God? First we invite him in. It must begin there. God is a gentleman and only comes into our hearts if we invite him. So, we must believe in him and realize we need him to make us right – we cannot do that on our own. Once we do this, God will take care of everything else. He will run out the evil spirits and he'll put up a “no vacancy” sign. He'll do the cleaning and he will keep the enemy at bay. We shouldn't be discouraged if we are still tempted because we all are, but now we have help from a power that we didn't have before.

Jesus called his generation wicked. I'm sure he still feels the same way today. The world is full of people who are trying to be religious on their own and it's not working and never did. What God desires is a world full of people who, by faith, have invited him into their hearts. A world of people who live a life filled with hope, filled with power, filled with him.