We’ve been making some changes. We are moving to an upstairs bedroom and
making our old bedroom a den/study. The
thing about cleaning is that you always find things that you never knew or
forgot you ever had. It’s truly amazing! I can’t even imagine why we kept some of the
things we found. We spent a lot of time
throwing “junk” away. Today, we cleaned
the closet. Wow! As I was cleaning and throwing things out I
was amazed at how much junk we had stored in a 3x9x 6 space. One thing we dragged out of the closet was a
box of old electrical/ computer cables.
Really! Technology has advanced
so much that not one of those cables would be good for anything now, unless I
want to tie someone up. I’ll admit some days the thought has crossed my mind,
but not today. They went to the curb
along with countless other articles. As
I was sorting, keeping, giving and throwing, I thought about my life. What does God want to do in my closet/ life?
I can just see God saying, “Let’s get rid of this, it’s holding you back from
following me” or maybe, “This is great but it’s no longer necessary. It served a purpose but now it’s time to let
it go.” For still other things he may
whisper, “This is good. I still have
plans for this. Let’s put this in the
keep pile!” The problem is that unlike
the closet, we are capable of saying, “No” to God. I know at times I have held on to a habit, a
bad friendship or something else that I’m sure God wanted me to “kick to the
curb” but I was unwilling to give him permission to get rid of it. The
problem is that as long as I had unnecessary things in the closet, I had no room
in the closet for the things that really should have been in there. I had to get rid of the box of old internet
cables and other useless things in order to make room for what really should
have been stored there. So in my life,
as long as I hold on to the pointless clutter, I may end up with no room for
anything else. Friends, God wants to
bless us with a good abundant life that will be good and pleasing to him but
often we have our life full of things we don’t need and will never use so we
have no more room for anything.
Sometimes we have to be willing to let God clean the closet. Yes, there may be some things that God says
you need to give “the old heave ho”.
Yes, may hurt for a bit. We can,
however, trust him. If he say it needs
to go then it’s for our good to make us better.
God will never ask us to give up what we really need. He loves us way more than we can imagine. His
goal is to take all those unnecessary things and replace them with things that
will give us an abundant life. Oops! It’s
time to get back to cleaning the closet.
As I was driving home today, I passed a person walking on the side of the road. Since it was cold, and snowy, I thought I should stop and offer the person a ride. As I drove on by, I was irritated with myself for not stopping. I could have and should have but I didn't. Why? I was scared! Maybe that wouldn't bother you, but I'm willing to bet there are things that make you afraid. It may be snakes or spiders that send the ticker into overdrive. Or maybe it's your job and finances that keep you up at night when you should be resting. Then again perhaps it's relationships that consume your thoughts and energy. As followers of God, we know that we are told not to be afraid. Yet we often are afraid despite everything we know. As I was driving away from a missed opportunity, I began thinking about what it is that makes us afraid. I honestly am not sure what it is that causes us to be afraid when we should be bold, but I
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