Take Out the Trash

My husband makes the best fried chicken—seasoned to perfection with just the right amount of crunch. Not too hard, just right.

The only problem? The bones.

If they sit in the trash can for a few days, they start to smell horrible. Sometimes when I catch that smell, I wonder why I even keep eating chicken in the first place.

But go back to the first line… and you’ll know why.

One day, I walked into the house and was hit with a loud stench—the kind that sends you from room to room trying to figure out what has your whole home smelling like a garbage truck.

I checked the garbage disposal.
I checked the bathrooms.
Then I made my way to the kitchen trash can, and finally …

I found where the smell was coming from.

At first I couldn’t tell what was causing it. So I put on some gloves and started moving things around until I found the source: chicken wings from a few days earlier.

And right then—God used that stinky trash to reveal something deeper in me.

Because that smell?
That smell is a lot like the sin in our lives.

If it isn’t identified and dealt with, it can stink up everything. What starts small and hidden can spread further than we realize—affecting our thoughts, our attitudes, our words, and our choices.

That is why Psalm 139:23–24 is such a necessary prayer:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”

David didn’t ask God to search other people.
He didn’t ask Him to expose everyone else.

He said, search me.

Because real transformation doesn’t start around us—it starts within us.

Let’s be honest…

Sometimes we ask God to change our circumstances, when really He wants to expose what is in us.

Maybe your attitude stinks.
Maybe your tone stinks.
Maybe your habits stink.
Maybe your time management stinks.
Maybe unforgiveness, pride, jealousy, laziness, or compromise has been sitting too long, unnoticed, untreated, and now it is affecting more than just you.

But just because you’ve gotten used to it…
doesn’t mean it’s not affecting everything around you. We all have areas in our lives that need to be brought before the Lord.

But here’s the good news:

Jesus doesn’t expose what’s rotten to shame you—
He exposes it to cleanse you.

He is not just a detector…
He is a Redeemer.

He is faithful to uncover what is foul, remove what does not belong, and lead us in the way everlasting.

When you invite Him in, He doesn’t just point things out—He helps you remove them. He replaces what is foul with what is pure, what is heavy with what is freeing, what is broken with what is whole.

So today, instead of ignoring the smell or covering it up, invite God to search your heart.

Ask Him to reveal what needs to go.

Let Jesus clean what you can’t.

Then let Him help you take out the trash.

Someone may need a heart check today.
Share this with them.