There’s something about coming into summer which makes everyone want to do a ‘summer clean’ of sorts. It starts with the house as all the winter clothes get packed away and the ones that looked nice in November but now look like a mistake get dumped into a bag to take to a charity shop, then we move onto the garage/shed which gets a good clear out of the ‘treasures’ that it has been storing. Anything that looks like a spider has made it home on it makes its way to the charity pile. This is closely followed by the car which gets completely stripped out of empty bottles and winter coats, which is handy because at this stage the car will be packed up again with things from the rest of the house that need to be cleared out… at least that’s what this past week has looked like for me.
As I was completing these tasks this week I was reminded of something I done about a year ago and have tried to do every few months since. I had been asked to lead a prayer time at work and if I’m honest I had forgotten about it until I was walking in that morning. I quickly asked God what to do (in a sheepish voice) and I heard some basic instructions. I was to carry out a spiritual M.O.T on myself and the room. If you don’t know the M.O.T is a UK thing were cars get checked for road worthiness once a year in order to keep dangerous cars off the road and prevent them from hurting themselves and others (There’s definitely another blog on this subject about mind-set and hurting yourself and others but that’s for another day). I want to teach you how to perform this Spiritual M.O.T on yourself at home or wherever you are.
I began the time with playing some worship music to invite the Holy Spirit into the room and then asking the everyone to take a moment to pray out loud simply saying how much the love God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit. After this moment I asked them to simply sit and think about how good Jesus has been to them. To remember his goodness, the times he has shown up for them and how much he loves them. I asked the guys to spend just 3-5 minutes on this and I still believe this is just the right amount of time for you to try too.
Once that time is finished I suspect that when you tried to focus on Jesus and those things, your mind was clouded by the things you have been focusing on and the worries/anxieties you have. This is what most experienced and the reason is simple. The enemy hates it when we focus on Jesus, he hates it when our attentions turns to heaven and not on the worries of this life. He simply can’t help himself but he shows his hand by revealing what he has been trying to capture our attention on.
Once we have seen these things and realised that are attempting to cloud our view of Jesus the next part of the Spiritual M.O.T is to declare that Jesus is bigger than those worries and thoughts. So take time to simply say out loud or under our breathes what those thoughts were and then declare Jesus is bigger… So if money is the first thing that popped into your head when you focused on God say Jesus is bigger than my money worries, Jesus has power over money worries and I love Jesus more than I love money… Declare that for each of the areas that the enemy tried to throw at you.
Once you have spent time doing that simply pray to God with thankfulness and end with the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6 9-13) The day I tried this for the first time a burden lifted off the room and it has done most times since then when I have taken people through this. I do believe there is power in doing this in community as well as alone, especially reciting the Lord’s prayer in community. I pray that you to find this tool useful.
Finally I have been trying to think of something to fit into the M.O.T abbreviation (Ministry of Transport is the official meaning) I think for this purpose we will call it the ‘Minds Open Thoughts’ as it’s a process of getting the mind to think on Jesus again instead of the open thoughts of the world.. That’ll do well!