One thing I have been convicted of recently, and for some time now, is the need to purge. No, I am not bulimic, though some might question that when they see me eat. I do love to eat. God has been trying to get my attention to let me know there are some things yet in my life, that He did not put there, and they are in the way of what He is trying to accomplish. These are things that He wants me to purge from my life, thereby creating space for Him to do more through me.
I have been pretty stubborn about the whole thing, kind of like Saul who was "unwilling to completely destroy" some of the "good" things taken from the Amalekites, as he had been directed to by God (I Sm. 12:20-22). I have argued the same way with God. The things that He has been wanting me to let go were things that had some value, at least to me.
I have counseled a few hoarders, people whose homes and lives have become so cluttered, their homes are no longer safe places for them to live. The difficulty, for them, is that everything they have hoarded has some value. They are difficult to help because their way of valuing things is unlike anyone else's; so that, when others try to get them to remove things from their homes, they can't agree on what to get rid of first.
We, too, are at risk in terms of our spiritual lives by our own hoarding, by hanging onto things that may have some value to us, but, interfere with the plan God has for us and our ministries. Using the opportunity provided by the season of Lent, Ruth Haley Barton challenges us on her website, to return to God with all our hearts. She cites the example of Christ who was tempted in the wilderness to "trust in that which is not God for security and survival, affirmation and approval, power and control."
Typically, when we are hanging onto something that is not of God, it is because it appears to us to have some value. However, if God is saying to let it go, it is time to let it go!
Godspeed, Phil
I have been pretty stubborn about the whole thing, kind of like Saul who was "unwilling to completely destroy" some of the "good" things taken from the Amalekites, as he had been directed to by God (I Sm. 12:20-22). I have argued the same way with God. The things that He has been wanting me to let go were things that had some value, at least to me.
I have counseled a few hoarders, people whose homes and lives have become so cluttered, their homes are no longer safe places for them to live. The difficulty, for them, is that everything they have hoarded has some value. They are difficult to help because their way of valuing things is unlike anyone else's; so that, when others try to get them to remove things from their homes, they can't agree on what to get rid of first.
We, too, are at risk in terms of our spiritual lives by our own hoarding, by hanging onto things that may have some value to us, but, interfere with the plan God has for us and our ministries. Using the opportunity provided by the season of Lent, Ruth Haley Barton challenges us on her website, to return to God with all our hearts. She cites the example of Christ who was tempted in the wilderness to "trust in that which is not God for security and survival, affirmation and approval, power and control."
Typically, when we are hanging onto something that is not of God, it is because it appears to us to have some value. However, if God is saying to let it go, it is time to let it go!
Godspeed, Phil
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