Something I Need To Get Rid Of April 10, 2008

Lucretia was laughing at me the other night because of the fact that I can’t seem to throw ANYTHING away…I’m sort of a pack rat.

One of the things she thinks it is ridiculous that I still have is an old, green washrag.  It seriously looks pathetic…but for some reason it is THE wash rag that I always use.  We have much newer and nicer ones–but I just can’t use them for some reason.

(Men are like this with their underwear as well…we will buy them and wear them until they dissolve!!!)

SO…I’ve made the decision…I am going home tonight and throwing the old green washrag away.  I just don’t need it anymore…why hold onto something old and gross when much newer and nicer things are available to me?  It just doesn’t make sense does it?

YET–all of us do that…one way or another.

According to II Corinthians 5:17, when we become Christ followers the OLD literally becomes new.  Jesus takes all of our wrong and gives us all of His right…yet so many times we choose to hold on to the OLD…such as…

Some of us are holding on to CONDEMNATION...it was that one bad decision, or series of bad decisions, or Spring Break…or the divorce…or a host of other things.  I know so many Christians that hold condemnation so close because of their past–yet Romans 8:1 says there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Some of us are holding on to BITTERNESS…we harbor anger and resentment in our hearts towards another human being and refuse to forgive them.  We have imaginary conversations with them in our minds…and we ALWAYS win the argument.  We want them to suffer…to be in pain because “of what they did to me.”  Yet Jesus, while being brutally crucified, prayed for the forgiveness of those murdering Him.  If we are better than Jesus then we should hang on to bitterness…but if not then we need to throw it away.

Some of us are holding on to PRIDE…we take a look at where we are in life and think that we actually made “all of this happen,” when, in actuality, God is Sovereign over the entire universe and we could not even take our next breath if He didn’t allow it to happen.  Every blessing we receive should cause us to OVERFLOW with thankfulness to Jesus and understand that all that we have is because of His grace and not our performance.

Some of us are holding on to FEAR…we know God wants us to do something, and, in some cases–we know EXACTLY what He wants…yet we refuse to choose to obey because doing so would place us in an area of discomfort…and that is something that we fear.  And…so we will allow what others may say about us and think of us to dictate our decisions rather than trust in a Holy, Awesome, Perfect and All Powerful God.  If God is in control–why fear?

Are you holding on to anything that you need to get rid of?