So how much junk and rubbish do you accumulate over a period of time? That can be a very short period too sometimes.
I so often say I will hang on to something “just in case” or “I may need it again one day”.
Well the last two weeks have made me realise that I need to drop that habit and only hang on to things that are of value (and I do not necessarily mean financially) and that will be of real use to me or my family now and in the future.
Two weeks ago my eldest son moved out of our home to set up a home of his own. This came with a whole range of mixed feelings for both Julie and I ranging from sadness at his departure and sharing joy and excitement that he is moving on and taking hold of his own life.
As a consequence of this we undertook a fairly radical change around within our house. We have six children in all, with Matt moving out that still left a household of seven. We live in a three bedroom semi detached house that has two reception rooms one of which has been converted into a bedroom, so that gives us four bedrooms. We have four girls (well ladies ranging from 14 – 22) and two boys (Matt having left now and Tom who is 18 – so grown man not so much a boy). The boys were sharing the room downstairs and the girls were also sharing two per room.
The decision was that EVERY room used as a bedroom would be swopped around, fully re-decorated and we would all move into a new bedroom, ending up with Tom in the smaller room on his own. And at the same time the seven of us would have to continue living eating sleeping and working. So a simple task!!!!
We have completed that process, every room has been re-decorated and everyone is now sleeping in a new bedroom as a result.
However, in mine and Julies old bedroom (which was the biggest one in the house) I had my office where I worked from whenever I was home based, which was on average two weeks out of four, the other two weeks was/is travelling around Europe. I had a large desk, two bookcases and two, two drawer filing cabinets. Within all of this I had retained all the vital and key paperwork over the past five years of being home based that I knew would be absolutely vital in the future and was absolutely key to me continuing my business role.
Isn’t it interesting when you know that you will no longer have space to keep things what you previously viewed as vital and important you realise is just an accumulation of “stuff” and in fact is just in the way. I spent two or three days working through all of the paperwork that I had, all of the old files I had kept, all the notes that I had written down. As I looked through each one I realised I did not “need” any of it. Slowly but surely it all disappeared and was destroyed and what was a huge expanse of bits and pieces was reduced to three folders now kept in one of the filing cabinets, which also now houses all of our household documents too. Books I have boxed and moved up into the loft out of the way, but they are on my list next to be worked through and passed onto charity for others to enjoy/use.
Everything I thought was important to me achieving and accomplishing my business role was actually the opposite, it was in the way, unnecessary and simply accumulated rubbish.
And it took me to thinking about our own lives spiritually.
We accumulate rubbish as we live out our day to day existence. And the more we gather in and the more we hang on to the less room we give to what really matters, to what God really has in store for us.
John 15 vs. 1 – 4 says this:
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me”.
I am no gardener – ask friends they will tell you – it’s just not my “thing”. But I do know that in order to produce a crop/fruit you have to clear away the rubbish surrounding the plant to let it grow, you sometimes need to prune in order to allow renewed growth to take place.
That is no different for our spiritual life.
Just thing about the “things” you have hung on to in your spiritual life that may well hinder you going forward………….I’m just going to list a few for you and me to consider:
· Incorrect Friendships – if you are influenced by someone who is not a Christian, if you take and receive counsel from them maybe there needs to be a pruning. How are you going to be encouraged in your walk with Daddy God if people you take advice from do not event know who He is. This is not about having or not having non-Christian friendships, this is about deciding who you will allow to have influence over what you do
· Retention of past hurts – hanging onto the feeling the pain of something or someone who has hurt you in some way, either recently or in the past. If you hang onto that pain and hurt then you will suppress the richness and joy that Daddy has for you. You need to find a way that you can let those feelings go, not that you can necessarily make your mind forget things that have happened but you CAN give them over to Daddy God so that even if you bring an incident to mind you have removed the anger and the pain that may go along with it. I have quoted this before (paraphrased a bit I know) “Hurt people hurt people, loved people love people” – we MUST be in the position where we can be people who love people
· Accepting Lies – how many lies do you accept, and allow to settle on you? “God heals but He won’t heal me” “I’m not good enough” “I’m not wanted/needed” – what RUBBISH – we are all fearfully and wonderfully made so that means we are all wanted, we are HIS masterpieces – that’s pretty amazing (see my previous blog on “True Identity”). None of us are “good enough” to enter Heaven that’s a fact, and we can never be “good enough” – but we can through grace be saved and sanctified and as such through the death of Jesus we can enter Heaven. If you allow the enemy to say you are worthless then that is what you will believe and that is RUBBISH. If you and I were worthless why did God allow His only Son to die in our place? He did so because He loves and cares for us and because He believes we are worth it!! And whilst I cannot pretend to be God and cannot tell you why some people receive healing and others do not I can tell you God does heal and He can and will heal you and we need to know that and be convinced of that fact
These are just a few to prompt thinking.
We need to learn to do a little pruning in our lives. We need to cut off and remove dead wood/branches – those areas in our lives that are not bearing fruit, bitterness, unbelief, untruths and misaligned influences
Be sure to surround yourself with people of God who will help nurture and guide you and who will not be afraid to provide you with spiritual correction (and I do not mean simply moan at you at tell you that you are wrong – correction is not “telling off”).
For me I watch how people live their lives and how they walk their spiritual path not just what they say publicly – you have to walk out what it is you speak out otherwise you are a clanging gong making lots of noise and empty. As such when I am seeking counsel I have a list of people I will ask to engage with me on that and help me see what needs to be changed, what needs to be removed from my life, or introduced into it.
If we continue to clutter up our lives with the dirt from this world, with all the historical rubbish, we will not leave any room for God to work in and through us, we will just end up projecting ourselves to the world because we haven’t allowed any room for God to be in control of what we do.
So I have had a house de-clutter, and I have been working through a spiritual de-clutter for the past years or so.
I think we need to learn to have a regular and periodic de-clutter, an overhaul of our spiritual lives, on a regular basis, always ensuring that we get rid of the dross we can pick up from time to time and ensure we are always allowing God the room to work in our loves.
God Bless
