How To Cleanse Yourself

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:21-22: “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.  So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

The application for us is that we need to cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable by fleeing passions and pursuing Godly attributes.  The motivation for doing this has to be the Gospel (who Christ is and what He’s done for us at Calvary) – but the practical outworking of this happens on a daily basis.  The imperatives to flee and pursue also carry with them the idea of continuing to do this and to make it a daily habit of our lives.

But how do you do it?

Here are a few thoughts that may be helpful:

• The Holy Spirit has been given to us for this very purpose!  Paul said that the only way that we can put the flesh to death is “by the Spirit” (Rom 8:13) – and so in all our endeavors to do this we need to rely on the Holy Spirit.
• This is also why we have been given new hearts (Ezekiel 36) – so that we will want to flee passions and pursue righteousness.  Without the ‘want to’ it will never happen.  Rejoice that God has given all believers the ‘want to’!!!
• Prayer is such a huge key to this for many reasons: we need to be praying in order to know what passions are at war against our soul, we need to be praying in order to confess and repent, we need to be praying for the Spirit’s power to be at work in us and we need prayer as our means of abiding in Christ. (John 15:1-5)

Finally – think about how much this impacts our day to day, hour by hour walks with Christ:

• When you have the option between picking up the remote control or picking up your Bible; this is a chance to flee passions and/or pursue righteousness
• When you sense a conflict in your marriage or your family and the argument is just beginning; this is a chance to flee passions and/or pursue righteousness
• When you are talking to a brother or sister in Christ – the conversation could be about sports or the weather OR it could be about your soul and their soul; this is a chance to flee passions and/or pursue righteousness
• You have an opportunity for prayer and the Word every morning before getting ready for work, and every night before getting ready for bed; this is a chance to flee passions and/or pursue righteousness

Find your motivation at the foot of the cross and find your power in the Holy Spirit and get to work cleansing yourself from what is dishonorable so that you become more and more useful to God!