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At different seasons of our lives we find different longings.  Some of us go our whole lives one big gaping hole of need.  That is so sad to me.  Because now I know that the answer always rested in Him all along.

  • We struggle and we struggle; and we complicate everything by anxiously trying to fix our lives with our own ideas of what we need.  Only to find that thing we tried didn’t work, and now we are right back where we started… and oh, do we feel defeated and hopeless.
  • We turn to so many things trying to find that one thing that will satisfy.  And we become addicted because we find we can never get enough of just one thing.  Sometimes it is even good things we use to fill that hole…but only to find the hole is still there afterwards and we realize we still can’t get enough.  That is because we were not meant to.  Your creator made you to desire Him.   But this world has played havoc on us.

All of these things can be used to attempt to fill us up in one way or another.  Though they may be good things they were never meant to take God’s place in our lives.

♥       When we are tired and weary, what we really need is Jesus.

♥       When we are lonely, we really are missing Jesus.

♥       When we are hungry, but not really, we are searching for something that satisfies, what we really want is Jesus.

There is a time coming my friends, when we will find that our every longing will be met by Jesus Himself.

  • God really does withhold no good thing, and if He is withholding something, as much confusion and pain as it brings at that time, it is ultimately for our good and to make us more aware that He is there for us.  I have found this to be true again and again in my years with the Lord.

Your longing is safe with Jesus—maybe you can’t see Him, but He is there and He can not only fulfill your heart that longs for more, He can also give you good things.

You can grieve the lost time that you struggled before you knew this truth and you can be honest.  You can talk about it.  You can ask these questions:

  • Where is my life going from here?   What is next?

Remember, Jesus is holding your every longing.  He is waiting for you to turn to Him as your only answer.  He desires you with a passionate desire to walk with you every minute of the day.

Do what it takes to trust him, whether that means putting yourself out there and sharing or keeping it in your secret chamber where you meet with God. Your longings are not foreign to Him.

You know what clutter is, right?  It is the stuff we put on the table thinking we will put it away later.  It is the closet full of shoes we never wear.   It’s the clothes hanging in our closets year after year and we know we will never wear it, but, hey, maybe we will.  And what about those cupboards jammed full of stuff we may someday use.

  • In the same way clutter comes to our souls.
  • Remember we are spirit that part of us that is alive unto God, the real us, the us that will live eternally.  We have a soul, which is our minds, will, and emotions.  And we live in a body.  We are triune, just like God. (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
  • Clutter comes to our souls—our minds.  It is the stuff that we shove down thinking we will take care of it later.
  • Or we ignore it because it is too painful to give up.
  • Or we fear it will change us somehow to give up that part of our thought life to Jesus.
  • Soul clutter is the collection of emotional, relational, and spiritual issues we have been stepping over and ignoring.
  • Clutter can keep us tripping and stumbling around for a life time.

So, what are some of those things that clutter our minds?

Here are five things to do:

  1. Acknowledge the presence of each thing that God shows you that you are harboring in those secret places of your heart.
  2. Don’t isolate, but reach out to someone you trust and feel safe with to confess your faults and perhaps pray with you as you work into letting it go.
  3. Talk to Jesus about it.
  4. Journal your journey.
  5. Allow God to lavishly envelope you in His grace.

Grace is so huge, when we really get a glimpse into what He has provided for us it is so overwhelming you want to fall on your knees and stay there in praise and intimacy with Jesus.

We are all prone to guilt.  Sometimes we are so given over to guilt we become paralyzed by the process and choke out the work God wants to do.   Let God forgive, heal, restore, soothe, mend, and strengthen you.  Someone said, “You cannot drink dry the river of grace or breathe the last of God’s gifts to you.”

  • Make a quality decision today to be free of these distractions that drown out His voice in your head.
  • He says, “My sheep hear my voice”… but if dogs are running around us sheep, barking continuously, how can we hear Him when He speaks?

When you pray that the Lord will reveal every hidden thing or thought in your life and bring it to the surface and be ready to deal with whatever needs to be done to get rid of it, He will always come in mercy to assist you and love you into freedom.