Spiritual Hoarding

I think we are all hoarders to some extent. Some of us call it “pack rats” but most of us save things that we think we may need later on. I’m a pretty organized person in most areas, but if you were to look in my garage I could probably be called a hoarder to some degree. But I just never know when, or if, I might need one of those valuable items.

Spiritual hoarding is just as bad or in most cases much worse than hoarding things. What do I mean by spiritual hoarding?  All too often we  want to hang on to past hurts, anger, pride, and  jealously. These feelings of the past just hang around and are pilled in one mental closet or another and serve no purpose but to clutter up our mind.

Too often we want to take out some of these treasures and re-visit them. We  re-live the pain and hurt that these  feelings caused. We roll it around in our minds and justify our feelings. Then after our pity party we stick them back in the closet and close the door.  We are so busy hanging on to our past hurts that we are hindered from growing in God. We want to complain about how horrible our childhood was and how angry we are with a parent or relative that we can’t see past the pain. We grumble and fuss, cry and complain, and rationalize  our hurt. Then we wonder why it seems that God never hears our prayers.

In many cases we are still angry at people who are dead and can’t right their wrong, but we stay angry anyway.  Or maybe that person just won’t right the wrong that they have caused.  We forget sometimes that God has forgiven us of a great debt; and yet we won’t forgive another.  We didn’t deserve to be forgiven,  but He did anyway.

Other times its jealousy or pride that is holding us back; we deserved that promotion, we should get more recognition than we do.  Hate and racisms is another weight that holds us down. Hate  only serves to eat you up from the inside out. Your hatred for another human being does no harm to them but will eventually  kill you;  both physically and spiritually.  

The weight of haughtiness and pride fills our minds with an unclear and most times, wrong view or ourselves.   Keep in mind that the Bible warns us that pride comes before the fall, and you will fall every time and very publicly. God lets us build our selves up so that it is easy for everyone to watch as we are knocked off our pedestal. 

Do some house cleaning today. Get rid of the junk you’re holding on to, give it to God and let Him deal with it. Free your mind of the clutter and grow.

Who are you ? Image and Idenity

The following is a reprint of a sermon reduced to summary by our youth Pastor, Dave Wild. The message was so relevant to our everyday lives that I asked him to share it with us..

Who are you? This is a question that only you and God can answer. Our image is our identity; this is how others see us. In too many cases people don’t know who they are, or more importantly who God would like us to be. The only way to know who God wants us to be is to ask him! Who better to ask than the one who knew us before we were even formed in our mother’s womb, (Jeremiah 1:5). If we go through life not asking, not knowing, then we will miss out on who we were designed to be, you will never develop into the one that God wants you to be…

If we don’t inquire of God about His plans for us, then we allow ourselves to be molded and shaped by others. This is very common in our society today, it’s called identity theft. This happens when we allow Satan to convince us to be someone we are not.

This is a common struggle even in the church today. We often make choices and decisions based on what we see, and because of this we try to justify what we do based on what we see someone else do. The bottom line is that we’ll all be held accountable for what we do, and I don’t think God will let us off the hook with the “ because I saw brother or sister so and so do it” excuse. “ They have been in church their whole life so it must be ok for me to do what they do”. This is another misconception.

We are all individuals, each one of us are uniquely different. Paul calls us peculiar and special. We, each individual, need to learn to ask God what is right for ourselves. Our choices and decisions are what shape and mold our image. Our image is not only what others see ,but also refers to our qualities like intellect and personality.

Genesis 1:26 says that we are all made in His image. This means that if we are a child of God then we should bear some resemblance to him. Just as most children have a likeness to their parents. It should be no different with our relationship with God.

I want to encourage you to inquire of God who He wants you to be and let Him be the one who molds you and shapes you ! Don’t let identity theft rob you of your future..

Showing Christian Love

I sat in Sunday School this morning and was amazed at the lesson. The teacher, Joyce Corbett, taught on Christian love as written about in Romans 12. I was in awe at the simplicity of the lesson and how profound the message. It opened my eyes again to the need for Christians to Love each other.

Not just in word but in action. I first discovered this kind of Love last year when I was going through a pretty hard time in my life and I reached out to a friend from Church. At that time that’s all he was, a friend from Church. I knew little about this man’s background, only what he had shared. But his younger life resembled mine in a lot of ways, and although this man is younger than me, and has not claimed to be a Christian as long as me, God put him in place to be my confidant and friend when I needed him the most.

He has proven to be a trusted friend and a Godly man. I will, without hesitation, say that this man, in many ways, saved my life. He has no idea, until know, just how much he did for me during that time. His strength, Godly wisdom, and Christian love was everything God needed to direct me in the direction I needed to go. I could talk with him about what was wrong and the struggles that I was going through and he never judged and he never told. To this day he has never wavered as my friend, no matter how much I unloaded on him. He has remained a trusted friend.

It’s this kind of Christian love that we all need in our lives. Everyone of us need to be that person for someone and to have that person in our lives. Us men are the worst at having a “meaningful” relationship with another man. We too often see it as weak and not the “manly” thing to do, but that’s exactly what God wants us to do. Us men have the same struggles and the same problems, you are not unique. Having a Godly friend that can share in that struggle and will hold you accountable is one of the biggest blessings you will ever have.

God uses people in our lives to answer our prayers. We just too often shut out the answer and the blessing that God has for us because we are too scared to open our true feelings to someone else.. From the other side I challenge every reader to be that friend to someone. Show Christian ( Christ Like) love to everyone around you. Be known as the person that can be trusted and can listen without judgment. You just might be a bigger blessing to someone than you could ever imagine.