I hate clutter.  However, that doesn’t stop the cluttering from growing in my home.  I try to weed out the stuff that I don’t want or don’t use anymore but it gets replaced with other stuff.  Clutter isn’t just in our homes.  It is in our cars, in our school lockers and at the office.   But it is also in our hearts and minds.  Thoughts clutter my mind all the time.  There are times when I wish I could just turn it off!  Sometimes the thoughts are memories that bring me joy and I just want to savor those moments again.  Sometimes my imagination goes haywire, and I try to envision all types of scenarios of what “could” happen.  Other times it is thoughts from the past that I really don’t want to remember.  I have a plan of action for those times when I start thinking about those things that I don't want to remember or dwell on.  I start singing a praise song in my head, or I will start praying about something, anything, that has nothing to do with that particular thought.  It usually works. 

Isaiah 43:18-19a says this: “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?”

For 15 years I had kept journals of my devotion times and prayers.  I never looked at them, but they were all stored away in a closet for . . . . I have no idea why.  I guess I thought I would want to look them over someday.  Well, one day I took all the journals out of the closet, and I started thumbing through them.  There were prayers that I did not remember, and they were for people that I had absolutely no memory of.  I then realized that the journals weren’t for keeping.  Their job was to keep me focused during devotion and prayer times (because my cluttered mind keeps going off track).

So, I did something bold the other day.   I gave all the journals to my husband, and he took them outside and burned them.  For some reason, I felt lighter inside.  I was holding onto those journals and somehow they were cluttering up my mind as well as my closet.  There were things written in the journals that I did not want to remember as well as things that I couldn’t remember.  I still write in journals and I probably always will as it does help me to stay focused.  After a few years I will probably burn these too.

Revelation 5:8b says “. . . each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints”.  God keeps all my prayers in a bowl – I don’t need to keep a second copy in my closet!

 

MASTER KNITTER

KJV – Judges 20:11 “So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.”

NKJV – Judges 20:11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together as one man.

1 Samuel 18:1 “Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”

Colossians 2:2 “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love . . .”

Colossians 2:19 “and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.”

The word “knit” is interchanged with “bound” and “united” depending on what version of the Bible you are reading.  So, it is reasonable to say that if we are “knit” together, we are bound or united together.

But, what exactly does that mean?  If you look at a knitting project, you can see how the rows are all intertwined with each other. Each stitch is interlocked with another stitch and that gives the garment strength. 

The same is true with people.  When we knit ourselves together with someone, our spouse, our family, our friends, we will have a support system that is very strong.  I was talking with a friend about friendships and how God puts certain people in our lives.  Each person in our lives contributes something to it.  Just like in a knitting project, each stitch gives the next stitch strength.  Ecclesiastes 4:12 says: “though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.  And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  (Yarn is typically several strands wound together.  That gives it strength.)

But who are we knitting ourselves to?  If we have joined ourselves to the world, then our “project” may not turn out the way we expect.  We may get pulled in one direction or another causing a “stitch” to be “dropped”.  Then that section of our lives may not have the strength it once did and now we are pulled apart easily.  There may be a “hole” left where a relationship once stood.  We can’t fix the hole.  Even with reconciliations, we can try to mend it but it will never look like the rest of it.  The mistakes will be easily seen by everyone who looks at it.  What do we do now?  We made mistakes and we messed up our project. 

Have no fear!  We have a Master Knitter!  When we knit ourselves to Him, he takes our mistakes and makes us into brand new creatures.  When we give our project to Him, with all the dropped stitches and mistakes, He turns it into something breathtaking. 

When we unite ourselves, or knit ourselves, or bind ourselves to Christ, we will have the strength we need for each day. Jesus will give us the wisdom we need to know who to knit ourselves to in relationships and who to avoid.  He will teach us some new stitches to add to our project.  He will help us to prevent those dropped stitches and He will be there to mend them when they happen anyway.  When we allow Him to surround us, we don’t have to worry about falling apart.  I saw a cute saying a long time ago and it stuck with me.  “A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to unravel.”  I want to encourage each of you that you are a work in progress and God may need to mend some areas.  Trust Him to do it and you will be amazed at how beautiful you really are.

 TRUST GOD?

Trusting God.  It’s easy when nothing is going on in your life.  You’re just going about your business - no financial concerns, no health concerns, things are running smoothly.  Someone asks you about trusting God and you answer - “Of course I do.  Absolutely!  God is totally in control of my life.”  You might even have a hard time understanding why other people have a hard time trusting God.  God is faithful.  God is true.  God is loving.  God only wants the best for us.  How easy it is to trust God.

Then something happens.  You don’t know how it is all going to turn out.  All you have is God.  All of a sudden trusting becomes harder.  It would be easy to trust if you knew how it was all going to pan out.  But if you are stuck in a period of uncertainty - what then?

I had an opportunity to trust God in a very uncertain situation. A few years ago, I got some unsettling medical news.  I got scared.  Then I got on my knees.  I wanted to trust God with whatever He decided it should be.  But I wanted it to be nothing.  Nobody wants lupus.   Could I trust God to choose if I should have lupus or not?  Initially I couldn’t bring myself to even think that way.  Then, during the worship time in church, I suddenly felt a peace about it - a peace about totally trusting God no matter what He chooses for me.  Even if it means lupus, I could honestly say that I trust God.  I go for my final test in November, but it looks like I do not have lupus.  What do I have?  I have trust in God.  

If you are in a position where you need some help trusting God, I recommend Psalm 31.  (Note - read the whole Psalm) Trusting God isn’t hard in the easy times and it isn’t easy in the hard times but it is a choice we have to make.  Either we trust God or we don’t.  There is a verse in the middle of the Bible - Psalm 118:8 and it says “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”.  Amen!

 EXCESS BAGGAGE

It seems like nowadays if you have excess baggage it is going to cost you.  If you fly anywhere, you’ve got to pack stuff really tight.  Anything that can’t be carried on board is going to cost you – and in some cases even the stuff you carry on board will have a fee.  It makes you think about stuff that you really don’t need.  In the “old days”, you might pack a few extra outfits just in case you need them.  Now you’re thinking that maybe you can wear each outfit twice and only pack half of what you need.

We have excess baggage in our emotional and/or spiritual lives as well.  Things we have hung onto since childhood, religious habits or traumatic events in our lives.  Instead of dealing with it, we have packed it away into the corners of our heart.  We carry it with us wherever we go.  And it is costing us dearly.  Every now and then we run into an old hurt and bam – the baggage pops open and a flood of hurt comes pouring out.  Some of us pack away bitterness and resentment and we tell ourselves that we are over it but it is really still there waiting for an opportunity to bust open.  Some of us pack away hurt feelings and abuses we have endured at the hands of another.  We don’t really want to feel all those old hurts again but that is exactly what happens.  We don’t really want to carry it around with us but somehow that is what we end up doing.

Matthew 11:28-30, a familiar verse that we all know but here it is: ‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  If our burden is heavy, it is because we have overloaded ourselves.  Jesus says that His burden is light.  Wouldn’t we rather have a light burden? I know I would.  Jesus wants our baggage.  I want to give it to Him.  But each time I do, somehow I find it again, rearrange the contents and lock it back up.

What’s the solution?  Well, we all know that Jesus is the answer.  But how do we do that practically?  How can we really give it to Him and not take the burden back onto ourselves?  The only way that I know how to do it is by praying at the exact time that it hits me.  I still carry around some old baggage.  I long to be rid of it.  Little by little I am making progress.  Each time something happens that triggers one of my old “bags” to pop open, I immediately start praying.  I try not to over-react to the current situation.  My emotions may still take over but I am praying through them.  Lately, I have noticed that it doesn’t take as long as it used to.  I haven’t gotten rid of all the bags yet, but the load does seem to be lighter than it was.

Remember that we have an enemy and he knows what our baggage is.  He will certainly go out of his way to put people in our path that are going to “push our buttons” that cause our bags to pop open and all our hurts to fall out.  He will use the people we love to say the exact thing that will cause those old wounds to open up.  We can continue to collect the hurts and add them to our already over-stuffed bags, or we can run to Jesus and ask Him to “kiss our boo-boo and make it all better.”  We can go to Jesus like a child runs to his/her mommy after a fall, knowing that the boo-boo is going to be all better with just one kiss.  They KNOW, they don’t just think it, but they KNOW that mommy is going to make it all better.  We need to KNOW that Jesus will take our burdens.   In return, He gives us peace and rest.  What a trade!

Who is Lazy?

Proverbs 6:6-11

Go to the ant, you sluggard!  Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain,

overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.  How long will you slumber, O sluggard?  When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everything was just handed to us – we didn’t have to work for anything?  It might be nice for a while – like a vacation – but I am sure we would get bored.  Even Adam and Eve, living in a perfect world (before the fall) worked in the garden.  Genesis 2:15  “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”  After the fall, the work got hard.

The Bible has a lot to say about working.  The Apostle Paul worked to provide for himself so that no one could say that he was in the ministry for the money.   1 Thessalonians 2:9  “For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.”   2 Thessalonians 3:7-10  “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you;  nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.  For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”

Notice that Paul says “will not” work – not “can not” work.  There is a difference.  If you are able bodied, then you need to work to support yourself.

But what about God providing all that we need?  If we are working, then we are providing for ourselves, right?  Wrong!  God provides our skills and abilities.  God provides the opportunities for work.  God will provide but it does require our participation.

Proverbs 14:23  “In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter[fn] leads only to poverty.”

God allows us to create a life for ourselves.  He gives us the skills, abilities, tools and resources so that we can have the best life possible.  It is what we do with that provision that determines what kind of life we will have.  This earthly life is just a blip on the radar in contrast to eternity.  But this earthly life will dictate what our eternal life will be.  We have free will and we can do anything we want.  The choice is ours.  However, choices have consequences.  No one is perfect and we all make bad choices at times.  We can land ourselves in a pit.  But we don’t have to stay there!

Not only do we have free will but we also have rules to follow.  We can choose to follow God’s laws or not.  The consequences of our choices will follow us into eternity.

On earth, we have man-made rules to follow as well.  When we choose to break the law, we have consequences to pay.  Could be a hefty fine or jail time.  Our choices will follow us during our time on earth.

So, here’s the choice.  We can work and provide for ourselves and our family.  Or we can not work and go hungry.  Maybe you have a job and you go to work every day.  You show up but you do as little work as possible.  You don’t really want to be there and you don’t like the work that you have to do.  Could it be that God has placed you there for a reason?

Colossians 3:22  “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.”

Colossians 3:23-24  “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

A life time of work gives us an earthly reward – retirement!  (if we plan ahead)  Even the ant plans ahead and can enjoy the fruit of their labor.  Retirement is our reward.  If we haven’t worked, there is no reward – no retirement.  Only poverty will be waiting for us.

God requires us to be faithful in all that we do.  Whether it is a job to earn a living or a ministry to serve the Lord.  Do it with your whole heart.  Half-hearted attempts at anything are not worth it.  Picture God as your boss.  Would you goof off for Him?  What if the reward you received was only as good as the effort you put in?  What motives you to do your best?  Do you work only when someone is watching?  God sees it all!  There is nothing we can do behind His back.

Earthly rewards require work.

Eternal rewards require Jesus.

And you can have both!

NO INTEREST

Psalm 15:5 He who does not put out his money at usury nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

A friend or family member has come to you to borrow money. If you have enough to make the loan, do you? Do you charge interest and set a deadline for repayment? That’s what banks and loan companies do. It’s their business to loan money and they expect it back with interest. But how about you?

Could you “loan” money to someone knowing it would never be paid back? Would it cause a problem between you?

God’s word says that when we lend, we should not charge interest, nor should we expect to get it back. If you are not able to do that, then don’t loan the money. Give it if you can but don’t loan it.

God’s word has a lot to say about the poor and how they are to be treated:

Exodus 22:25 If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.

Leviticus 25:35-37 If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.

Deuteronomy 23:19 You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.

Proverbs 22:22-23 Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppose the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord will plead their cause, and plunder the soul of those who plunder them.

Get the picture? When someone needs to borrow money, it is because they don’t have enough. Adding on interest makes it harder for the poor to repay the loan. The poor person may be desperate, willing to repay any amount. That’s when the wicked take advantage of them.

Can you help the poor? Lend but not expect repayment?

Luke 6:34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.

I have been poor and I have needed to borrow money from family members. I was never charged interest by them. And I paid them back. I have also loaned money to family members. I have never charged interest. About 90% of what I have loaned has never been paid back. I don’t expect that it will. I have considered it a gift. I knew up front that it would most likely not be repaid. If someone wants to pay it back, I will accept it. I do not hound them for the money. I consider it gone. Whatever I get back is a gift from God.

Loan sharks take advantage of the poor. If they do not repent and choose Jesus as their Savior, there will come a day when God will deal with them. You do not want to be in that group.

What if a money loan has already caused problems in your relationship? Go to the Lord first and ask for forgiveness for your part in the problem. Then ask for wisdom to resolve it. It may mean letting go of the loan – treating it as a gift to that person. Some will have a hard time doing that. Especially if you loaned money that was meant for something else. It could cause bitterness. You will need to pray to keep the root of bitterness from getting established.

When someone can’t pay their bills and they need a loan – go to the Lord before you give an answer. God may use you to help that person. But He also may not. God may want to use that person’s situation to draw them closer to Him. He may want to teach them – to strengthen their faith. When we rescue people (outside of God’s will) we do more harm than good. Pray about it and wait for an answer. Remember, you are not the Savior, Jesus is.

Back to Leviticus 25:35-37 and Deuteronomy 23:19.  Who is your brother? Is it a family member, an actual sibling? Is it a friend or someone in your church? Yes, it is a brother, a family member, a friend, a neighbor and someone at church. Typically we don’t lend money to strangers – people we don’t know. Banks and loan companies do that.

God does not want us to hold onto money too tightly. He wants us to open our hands and freely give.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture verses are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

GIVING AND RECEIVING

Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

When you give something, how generous are you? Is the cup full, ½ full, less than ½? What if that same cup is used to give back to you – with the same amount that you gave? Would you want more?

We need to treat others the way that we would like to be treated. To give an amount of time, energy, resources that we would want to receive. We can’t be stingy with others and then expect to be treated with generosity.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Are you stingy? With your time, abilities, love? If you are stingy with your money, chances are you will be stingy in other areas of your life. Being stingy is a matter of the heart. We can be selfish, not willing to share what we have. A lot of things can create that kind of attitude within us. As a child, we are very selfish right from birth. Everything is “mine”! Just watch a couple of toddlers for a while and you will see a selfish nature. It comes naturally – no training needed! But we can be taught to share. If that training wasn’t part of your childhood and you grew up to be a selfish adult, there is hope. Decide today that you want to make changes. Go to God and ask for His help. He will give you opportunities to share. It will take some effort in the beginning – we are going against our nature. Once we learn how to share and to share abundantly, we will be amazed at how satisfying our life has become.

So, how generous are you? If you got back only the amount that you have given, would you be satisfied? How we treat people reflects what is in our heart. If we love our neighbor, we will want to do them good. It is hard to be stingy with someone you love. So, it is not a question of how big your bank account is, but how big is your heart?

Deuteronomy 15:7-8
If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

Proverbs 21:13
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor Will also cry himself and not be heard.

Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will not lack, But he who hides his eyes will have many curses.

Proverbs 11:24
There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty.

“Scatters” means to freely give. When we freely give, we end up with more. When we are stingy and withhold it all, we end up with less. Do you ignore the needs of others? Do you realize that you are missing out on blessings from God?

The Bible has a lot to say about the poor and that God will reward those who bless the poor. Check your heart. What can you do today to bless the poor?

Proverbs 22:9
He who has a generous eye will be blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture verses are from the New King James Version of the Bible.