By
the time of my second marriage, I had accumulated enough “stuff” that things
began to take on the form of “clutter.”
I also had a tendency, especially when I was not particularly content
with my life, to purchase things I wanted but did not need – a very typical form
of pain management and popular female coping mechanism. But as my life got more “stuffy”, I could not
manage things as well and it seemed to breed “confusion.” I lost time trying to find things, I was constantly
cleaning and picking up, etc. So I would
have yard sales to get rid of the stuff that I bought but did not need. One year I had 5 yard sales. Then I went and bought more stuff. Sound familiar? Isn’t that part of what was supposed to keep
America’s economy healthy?
By
1996, I had been married for a total of 16 years; 6 to my first husband and 10
to David. Our daughter, Abigail, was
about 5 years old. I had spent the first
years of my marriage to David trying to get healed from the wounds of my first
marriage. I wanted to be as free from
all those years before I brought children into our life. David had given me a One-Year Bible the first
year we were married. I had read through
it each year in order to allow the Bible to get into me in a way that I could
understand it as the “Whole counsel of God” instead of a verse here, a passage
there, or a favorite book of the Bible as I was accustomed to reading it. It was quite helpful and brought me a great
deal of peace. But in 1996, the Holy
Spirit gave me an invitation to “come up higher” and I said “yes”, even though
I did not quite know what that meant.
The
Lord led me to read the stories of other men and women in the Kingdom of God
who He had accepted this same invitation.
As I read their stories, I began to emulate some of the things they did
to experience more of God’s presence. I
began to incorporate worship into my quiet time. I got up earlier so that I could spend more
time in God’s Presence. I began to
journal my thoughts, prayers, and things I felt the Lord was speaking to
me. I began to make my Bible a
consumable by writing things in the margins as the Lord would show them to me
about myself.
As
I made these efforts to know Him more, He opened up a whole new dimension of
healing to me. I came to know God as my Father in a way I had never
understood. I came to know Jesus as my
elder brother; One who was there to protect me as my destiny unfolded. He worked on my fears, which were so
ingrained in me throughout my early years that in spite of my adventurous
heart, kept me from really accomplishing much at all. I had to take leaps of faith to survive in
this world as a young woman without a college education, but would either stop
myself short of any great success due to what I believed about myself. I usually started well, but did not have the
courage to go very far. After all, I had
suffered through a lot of illness and had almost died or been killed on
numerous occasions. I felt like I had
been targeted by something that, in my eyes, seemed as powerful as the God I
knew. In my heart, I knew that could not be true, but my experiences really competed against that truth. God always showed up to rescue me from death,
but it would just happen again and I did not know how to make it stop. But this deeper life led me to the truth I
needed. It opened my spiritual ears to
hear the Lord enough to get the direction I needed to follow Him out of the
valley of the shadow of death. And thank
God it did, for this unseen assassin stayed with me for 36 years before I was
set free from its grip. I desperately
needed this new season with Him!
In
the years that followed that invitation in 1996, there was so much healing, so
much revelation of my freedom in Christ, so much preparation for my destiny. But preceding that invitation in 1996 was the
conviction to “de-clutter.” God knew I would need to down-size my life so that the confusion that resulted from the extra load would not weigh me down as I started climbing higher.
So
I want to propose a few things for the woman who has sensed the call to “de-clutter” her
life and may be struggling to slow down enough to obey the invitation. I’ll begin with a Bible story that
paints a good picture of this process. It is found in Luke 18:18-27 and it reads…
“A certain ruler
asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you
call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not
commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give
false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have
kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You
still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad,
because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for
the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom
of God.” Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied,
“What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
This
precious young man was given the invitation of a life-time: “Come hang out with Me” is basically what
Jesus was saying to him! He could have
been with the disciples when Jesus was crucified and resurrected. He could have been in the upper room! He could have written Scripture! Who knows what COULD HAVE happened to this
young man’s life if he had just been willing to “de-clutter” that which held
his focus – the riches of life. For it
was his riches, something good, that kept him from something better – a life
with Christ.
For
me, in 1996, it was to get rid of excessive material things. Many years later, when I went through another
painful season, I had amassed a large number of animals – something that gave
me a lot of comfort – only I had a small zoo! I could have charged admission for you to visit my home (and I am a neat
freak! Can you imagine how busy I was in
that season??) Fast forward another few
years after most of the animals were gone and it was about further disciplining
my thought life. What is it for you –
and how many times has the Lord spoken to you about it?
How many times have you felt
convicted to let go of something, get rid of something, or change something in
order to pursue more of Christ? I’m sure
that I turned that type of invitation down many times before this invitation came in 1996
and yet, He continued to offer it until I was ready. I’m sure, due to busyness,
I have missed a few of those invitations since.
But the beautiful part of this young man’s story and a very important message
to us is found in a another look at the same story in Mark 10:17-21. In verse 21-22 we read:
“JESUS LOOKED AT HIM AND HE LOVED HIM. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” At this the man’s face fell. He went away
sad, because he had great wealth.”
When
God is asking you to do a tough thing and you don’t accept his advice the
first, or even the second time around; you need to remember that He loves
you. He wants to reward your obedience,
but He won’t love you any less if you don’t do it. You will miss your blessing, like this young
ruler did; but it will never diminish the Love of our Savior.
Many
times when we think we are waiting on Him to do something, the truth is that most of the time He is waiting on us. Never question in the darkness what He has
clearly spoken to you in the light. Go
back and be obedient to whatever the Lord placed on your heart – and then go
forward into a new season, full of new experiences with Him! His love for you will never change, but your
ability to receive more of it just might increase with your obedience.
Selah…
By
the time of my second marriage, I had accumulated enough “stuff” that things
began to take on the form of “clutter.”
I also had a tendency, especially when I was not particularly content
with my life, to purchase things I wanted but did not need – a very typical form
of pain management and popular female coping mechanism. But as my life got more “stuffy”, I could not
manage things as well and it seemed to breed “confusion.” I lost time trying to find things, I was constantly
cleaning and picking up, etc. So I would
have yard sales to get rid of the stuff that I bought but did not need. One year I had 5 yard sales. Then I went and bought more stuff. Sound familiar? Isn’t that part of what was supposed to keep
America’s economy healthy?
By
1996, I had been married for a total of 16 years; 6 to my first husband and 10
to David. Our daughter, Abigail, was
about 5 years old. I had spent the first
years of my marriage to David trying to get healed from the wounds of my first
marriage. I wanted to be as free from
all those years before I brought children into our life. David had given me a One-Year Bible the first
year we were married. I had read through
it each year in order to allow the Bible to get into me in a way that I could
understand it as the “Whole counsel of God” instead of a verse here, a passage
there, or a favorite book of the Bible as I was accustomed to reading it. It was quite helpful and brought me a great
deal of peace. But in 1996, the Holy
Spirit gave me an invitation to “come up higher” and I said “yes”, even though
I did not quite know what that meant.
The
Lord led me to read the stories of other men and women in the Kingdom of God
who He had accepted this same invitation.
As I read their stories, I began to emulate some of the things they did
to experience more of God’s presence. I
began to incorporate worship into my quiet time. I got up earlier so that I could spend more
time in God’s Presence. I began to
journal my thoughts, prayers, and things I felt the Lord was speaking to
me. I began to make my Bible a
consumable by writing things in the margins as the Lord would show them to me
about myself.
As
I made these efforts to know Him more, He opened up a whole new dimension of
healing to me. I came to know God as my Father in a way I had never
understood. I came to know Jesus as my
elder brother; One who was there to protect me as my destiny unfolded. He worked on my fears, which were so
ingrained in me throughout my early years that in spite of my adventurous
heart, kept me from really accomplishing much at all. I had to take leaps of faith to survive in
this world as a young woman without a college education, but would either stop
myself short of any great success due to what I believed about myself. I usually started well, but did not have the
courage to go very far. After all, I had
suffered through a lot of illness and had almost died or been killed on
numerous occasions. I felt like I had
been targeted by something that, in my eyes, seemed as powerful as the God I
knew. In my heart, I knew that could not be true, but my experiences really competed against that truth. God always showed up to rescue me from death,
but it would just happen again and I did not know how to make it stop. But this deeper life led me to the truth I
needed. It opened my spiritual ears to
hear the Lord enough to get the direction I needed to follow Him out of the
valley of the shadow of death. And thank
God it did, for this unseen assassin stayed with me for 36 years before I was
set free from its grip. I desperately
needed this new season with Him!
In
the years that followed that invitation in 1996, there was so much healing, so
much revelation of my freedom in Christ, so much preparation for my destiny. But preceding that invitation in 1996 was the
conviction to “de-clutter.” God knew I would need to down-size my life so that the confusion that resulted from the extra load would not weigh me down as I started climbing higher.
So
I want to propose a few things for the woman who has sensed the call to “de-clutter” her
life and may be struggling to slow down enough to obey the invitation. I’ll begin with a Bible story that
paints a good picture of this process. It is found in Luke 18:18-27 and it reads…
“A certain ruler
asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you
call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not
commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give
false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have
kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You
still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad,
because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for
the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom
of God.” Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied,
“What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
This
precious young man was given the invitation of a life-time: “Come hang out with Me” is basically what
Jesus was saying to him! He could have
been with the disciples when Jesus was crucified and resurrected. He could have been in the upper room! He could have written Scripture! Who knows what COULD HAVE happened to this
young man’s life if he had just been willing to “de-clutter” that which held
his focus – the riches of life. For it
was his riches, something good, that kept him from something better – a life
with Christ.
For
me, in 1996, it was to get rid of excessive material things. Many years later, when I went through another
painful season, I had amassed a large number of animals – something that gave
me a lot of comfort – only I had a small zoo! I could have charged admission for you to visit my home (and I am a neat
freak! Can you imagine how busy I was in
that season??) Fast forward another few
years after most of the animals were gone and it was about further disciplining
my thought life. What is it for you –
and how many times has the Lord spoken to you about it?
How many times have you felt
convicted to let go of something, get rid of something, or change something in
order to pursue more of Christ? I’m sure
that I turned that type of invitation down many times before this invitation came in 1996
and yet, He continued to offer it until I was ready. I’m sure, due to busyness,
I have missed a few of those invitations since.
But the beautiful part of this young man’s story and a very important message
to us is found in a another look at the same story in Mark 10:17-21. In verse 21-22 we read:
“JESUS LOOKED AT HIM AND HE LOVED HIM. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” At this the man’s face fell. He went away
sad, because he had great wealth.”
When
God is asking you to do a tough thing and you don’t accept his advice the
first, or even the second time around; you need to remember that He loves
you. He wants to reward your obedience,
but He won’t love you any less if you don’t do it. You will miss your blessing, like this young
ruler did; but it will never diminish the Love of our Savior.
Many
times when we think we are waiting on Him to do something, the truth is that most of the time He is waiting on us. Never question in the darkness what He has
clearly spoken to you in the light. Go
back and be obedient to whatever the Lord placed on your heart – and then go
forward into a new season, full of new experiences with Him! His love for you will never change, but your
ability to receive more of it just might increase with your obedience.
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