FaithVenture

Ever notice how much stuff clutters our homes? Our houses no longer come with one or two car garages, but one or two unit storage places.  We gather and collect so much stuff that one of the newest and fastest growing businesses is personal storage units either in the form of sheds on one’s property or at a facility down the road from your home.
 
Our clutter is so bad we often do realize what we have until we clean things out for your annual garage/rummage sale.  We walk around boxes, furniture, toys, sporting equipment, stuff in general day after day, not realizing all that we have, and sooner or later, we can’t walk through our garage anymore, nor can we find what it is we are looking for when we need it.  That which is most important, essential gets lost in all the clutter.

“If a Christian is to truly practice the presence of his Lord, and do so properly, then the heart of the Christian must be empty of all else. ALL.  Why?  Because God wills to possess the heart and God wills to be the only possessor of that heart, and the only possession in that heart.  God cannot be the only possessor of your heart unless it is empty of all else.  God cannot put what God desires into a heart unless that heart has been left vacant for God alone to refill it.”   Brother Andrew (p. 66)

Often times we do not experience the fullness of God’s Spirit in us because of all the clutter in our hearts and lives.  We clutter our days and minds with to-do lists; projects; “go-to”s that keep us distracted from seeing God and God-opportunities in our everyday lives. We clutter our free time with television, the Internet, hobbies and recreation.  We clutter our hearts with bitterness and selfishness; with the desire to better ourselves, improve ourselves, prove ourselves.  We clutter spirits with baggage from the past, stuff put there by others – the pain of abuse we’ve experienced or of how others have hurt us and let us down, not just reliving the pain but thinking of how we would make it right/get even if we could.  The clutter of the demeaning words others have directed at us that keep us in bondage, and how we are going to prove them wrong.  We clutter our minds and spirits with sin.  And then we wonder why we can’t find Jesus.

To Practice the Presence of Jesus, we must empty ourselves of “all”.  This means that like we do when we go through our garages before a rummage/garage sale, we take time to sort/sift through all the mental, emotional, spiritual clutter in our lives.  To look at what we have collected, what we have been afraid to deal with/address, and surrender those issues, those hurts, those dreams and desires over to God and let God collect them.  Let God deal with them.  Let God have them.  As we do, we will feel an “emptying” process occur within us that allows God to have our “all that frees us to experience God’s presence without all that clutter.

You see, if we don’t deal with the clutter, it will inhabit, inhibit, and interfere with your thought processes and your emotions which will in turn affect your reactions and responses and your desire for spiritual growth and transformation.  It will clutter your thinking, your perspective, your reality, and your spirit, tainting your communion and experience of God. 

So, to foster a spirit within you which is free to practice God’s presence in a deeply satisfying manner, have a rummage/garage sale often.  Take time weekly, monthly, if not daily, to reflect on the clutter in your life; to look at what is filling up your mental, emotional, and spiritual garage, and make sure you give it all to God so God can have all of you.

May God continue to bring the changes needed in you that you may radiate the image of God as you were created to.

Pastor Tony J.