Clear out!

Do you ever have days where you go through all your stuff and clear out all that old junk that has become useless or you just don't use anymore. There's always a bunch of stuff that has become just that... stuff. Things that are just there cluttering up space. 

Well, I moved houses about 6 months ago and did not have room to empty out all my boxes so a lot of things have stayed in the boxes and guess what... I haven't missed any of it. So today, I went through those boxes and sorted it into three piles. The things to keep (mainly books), the things I can sell or give away, and the things that just need to be thrown out. The throw out pile was the biggest! There were things I had bought YEARS ago, and had thought about throwing out many times before but always had come up with excuses to keep it. Well, today, I was strict, no making excuses, if I didn't need it... it was going! 

Clearing out my "stuff" made me stop and think about the other things in my life, not the physical things, but the emotional, the baggage I carry with me. How often do we stop and take the time to go through that and get rid of all the stuff that is no use to us, the stuff that we should have let go long ago, the stuff that could be holding us back from the future or that is preventing us from filling it with new things. 

There are a lot of things we may hold onto from the past. We think we can't let go of it, we can't let those thoughts or memories go, but sometimes they can be whats holding us back. If those memories and thoughts aren't helping us move forward, if they are just taking up space in our minds preventing us from filling it with new memories and thoughts, then we need to get rid of it! Throw it out! De-clutter your life!

A few years before I met Jesus I had made friends with a guy. He was just what I felt like I needed at the time but, it was one of those relationships where I thought it was going somewhere, and he didn't see it as anything. It was quite unhealthy for me, but I was in a bad state at the time, quite depressed, and willing to do anything to feel loved. I held onto this relationship, I knew it was bad for me, but at the time I did not care. It probably went on for at least a year before I actually realised it wasn't going to change and I had to move on. A couple of years later I moved to NSW and for a while life was going great. But... when another guy came onto the scene, suddenly memories of this previous relationship had come back to haunt me and I was suddenly afraid that any other guy will be just like the friend from WA. Just like we can with physical things, I had hidden away these memories and almost forgotten them, but suddenly something had triggered them, and they surfaced. Not letting go of this memory could affect the rest of my life if I didn't deal with it. 

Eventually, I came to meet Jesus and at a ladies weekend away, I dealt with this past. I realised that I needed to let God into every part of my heart, and clear away all that junk. I can't forget the memory of what had happened, but He showed me how to deal with it, how to not let it take hold of my life. He helped me to clear out any of the darkness, the fear and worry, the negativeness I held towards men so I could then move on with my life how He planned. I am still currently single, but I know that when God sends His man my way I am not going to allow my previous experiences affect how I behave around men anymore.

"Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you." (Proverbs 4:25)

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead."(Philippians 3:13)

As the verse above says, we need to forget what is behind, we need to focus on what lies ahead of us. Learn from our past, ask God to help us move forward, and then do just that. Move forward. Let's not dwell on things we cannot change. Let's look to the future. 

  

So, how often do you stop and allow God to do a work in you? How often do you let him search your heart and help you to let go of things that sometimes you don't even realise you're holding on to? It's probably something we forget to do but we should make it something we do daily. Just spend some time and ask God if there is anything that needs to be cleared away. And just listen, when He speaks you will know. Then just give Him time, allow Him to help you to show you how to move on in His purpose. 

Thankful for: Laughter

Ok, so yesterday, I fell off the bottom step at church. Most of the people that saw were concerned, but me and a friend of mine were just laughing at it for about 10 minutes. Now, some people might think it's weird that I'm thankful for a friend laughing at me when I could have hurt myself, but I'm fine, and having a friend to just laugh with me made the whole thing so much easier to deal with. If everyone was worried, and there was no laughter, I probably would have felt worse about it, and allowed myself to feel down, but with laughter, I was able to get up and just continue to enjoy my evening. Of course, I know that if I really had hurt myself, my laughing friend would have been one of the first to help me. So, I'm thankful for laughter, for those times where there's just nothing else to do but laugh!