Dig Deep

Thursday, 30 Jan 2003

The Lord lifts the burdens of those bent beneath their loads.
Psalm 146:8b
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How many of us feel so bent over from the stress of the loads we carry each day? How many of us wish that somehow, some way, some where, we could dump this load of "stuff" and start out fresh and new, feeling like we did as a young child? The "good ole days", we might call them. Can we remember back that far? Or maybe we would rather not. Maybe they weren't so good, and maybe they were what got us into the mess we live in now. Maybe...

Where did it all start?
Where will it all end?
What will happen in the mean time?

Don't we wish we knew...or do we?

Jim and I have started the huge process of sorting through almost 27 years worth of "stuff." We've barely gotten started and already we're filling trash cans, setting things aside for yard sales and holding onto a few things we think are important or necessary for the future that lies ahead. Moving into a one "bedroom apartment on wheels" as we've been calling it, is a challenge. Not because we're not excited and ready, but because we have so much preparation before that day comes.

Maybe we should have started months ago, but I think not. It seems much more "the right time," right now. We are ready. Ready to down size, ready for our RV to be finished (it should be done in March) and ready to say good-bye to being homeowners. Our minds are ready, our hearts are ready, it's just that our possessions aren't quite ready!! We are still "bent beneath their loads."

As I go through drawers and hobby areas and closets, it amazes me how much is stored in there that I haven't seen in years. Things I haven't given a second thought, but then when I run across it, I wonder if I can bear to part with it. It seems so much a part of who I am, and yet I didn't even realize it still existed until I opened up the drawer and started digging around. It was hidden from my sight, and I didn't realize that it was still part of the "load" that I was carrying around with me. From house to house, city to city, and even country to country.

It's very much like our hearts. We wonder sometimes why they get so heavy, what could be weighing them down, but we won't take the time to open the "drawer" and look inside. Look deep inside underneath that top layer, and see what's there. See what might be gotten rid of that we've carried around for too many years, unnecessarily. Burdens and cares and worries that have long since passed. Feelings not fully faced, but stuffed down deep into the "drawer" of our hearts thinking they were better left unsaid and undone, rather than to pull them out into the light and see if it is time that they should be tossed. Given up at last, so that we can be free of the burden they cause us to bear.

That is what God is in the business of doing...helping us unload. Helping us to be renewed and refreshed as we start out each new day. He is our Mighty Helper.

The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him sincerely.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries
for help and rescues them.
Psalm 145:18-19
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Our hearts are deep. Deeper than the deepest drawer or closet. They go way back, and way down. They store all our lives in something no larger than our fists. They store all the love we have ever known and all the hurt that we have ever felt. They capture all the beauty our eyes have ever seen, and all the ugliness the world has ever shown to us. Our heart is an amazing muscle that beats each day we live and can also be broken into a thousand pieces in one second's time, and then still keep beating...

Until we stop and listen to our hearts, we will never know what they contain because we will continue to keep shoving things into them and covering up what's underneath, until the burden becomes so great we wonder why our step has slowed, our emotions are shaky and our minds are confused and wondering what this all for anyway...?

Don't you wonder? Don't you wonder what this is all for anyway? Don't you wonder why you get out of bed each day and do the same thing over and over and over, simply to get a paycheck or keep up the house, or live through another day of retirement? Doesn't it all seem useless to you at times, if you are honest with yourself? If you dig down deep into your heart and see what's buried underneath all the things that keep you busy, what is at the bottom of the "drawer" that's really worth keeping?

Is there anything worth salvaging?
Anything worth taking along into your future?
Anything of eternal value?

I sure hope so!!

I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God even with my dying breath.
Don't put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
When their breathing stops, they return to the earth,
and in a moment all their plans come to an end.
But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
Psalm 146:2-5
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If God is what is at the bottom of the "drawer", the bottom of our hearts, we have something to hang onto. We can grab hold of God and hang on tight and never let go of Him! He is a keeper!! He is the treasure we are looking for when we dig through all our "stuff" and wonder if any of it is worth salvaging. He is our past and our present and He is "what" we will take into our future that is of eternal value.

The junk in our lives piles up high and as quickly as the junk in our hearts. It piles up so quickly that we look for places to stash it to get it out of the way. We also look for places in our already full hearts to put all the "latest." In it goes, as we are barely aware of its arrival, and we barely stop long enough to realize there is no place for it in our already full hearts. We squeeze it in, squeezing out more and more of the place that is reserved for God alone. Does He mind as He just moves over and waits? Sometimes He waits our whole lives before we make room for Him again. Sometimes we never do, we never have time, or we never even notice that we have crowded Him out of our lives completely.

He does mind...

Why?

Because He longs to help us, to carry us along, to be our Friend, to spend time with us. He created us to have a relationship with Him because He loves us. He lives in our hearts when we invite Him in because that is our deepest "drawer." That is where what is most precious is kept all our lives, and He is most precious of all.

What can we do to clear out some space for Him, to give Him the room He needs?

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:1-2
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That can be so difficult when we want to hold onto all the things we have packed away in our "drawer." We barely know what is in there, but we hold onto it so tightly, barely opening the drawer long enough to see if there is something in there that needs to go from our lives.

Some past mistake, some past resentment, some past sin that keeps us bound even though Christ has come to set us free.

By setting our hearts on things above, the importance of the things of this world lose their hold on us. We can be set free from their captivity. We think we hold them, but they really hold us. We think it is our right to be angry, to hold a grudge, to hang onto resentment. In the end, we really give up our right to freedom because we have locked ourselves in our own prison and we have handed the key over to the enemy, willingly.

By setting our hearts on things above, we actually gain all the things in this world we think we are missing. We gain the freedom to enjoy all the gifts that God blesses us with. Our "drawer" becomes so full of all His mercy and faithfulness and kindness it takes our breath away as our hearts are filled to the full with His goodness. The difference with these "possessions" we acquire is that they have eternal value. They will not only last a lifetime, they will last past this lifetime. They will be carried with us as we leave this earth and enter into our eternal home. They are the only things that will. Nothing else in that "drawer" can go. It is not allowed in. It might be like passing through a metal detector in an airport. The buzzer will go off and you will be stopped...any extra baggage you have brought along will be left. No tears, no anger, no hatred, nothing bad or worldly will be allowed into God's Holy City of Heaven.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, say, "Look, the home
of God is now among his people!
He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself
will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows,
and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying
or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever."
And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!"
Revelation 21:3-5
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Everything will be made new! All the old junk will be left behind. All the "stuff" we packed in so tightly thinking we could never live without, will be gone. We will have no more heavy burdens, no more loads weighing us down, it will be finished!

And he also said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega - the Beginning and the End.
To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge!
Revelation 21:6
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How refreshing that will be! All this "stuff" will be a thing of the past, and what we will be left with will all be good and refreshing!

I will think about this as I continue to go through our things here. I will keep in mind what a friend told me recently, "It is not eternal." We hang onto things thinking it is who we are, when it is not. It is the love in our hearts that define who we are. It is the One we believe in that makes us His children. It is His love that goes with us wherever we go, and that is what is most important.

There will be some difficult things to part with as I move into Phil's room and go through all his cherished possessions. All the things that he left behind that night in November over a year ago now. Things that mattered to him, but things he no longer needs. When I look at his things, it breaks my heart, but when I look at his life, it enhances each day I live.
That is eternal.
That, I will keep.

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
For he laid the earth's foundations on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths.
Psalm 24:1-2
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Everything belongs to the Lord!
The more we give up to Him, the more He showers down His blessings on us.
The more we free ourselves from what holds us prisoner, the more we experience the freedom that has been offered to those who believe.
The more we open our hearts to God, the more His light will shine into and out of our hearts, setting us free from those things that bind us to this world.

Our Father in Heaven already knows the contents of every "drawer" on earth. There is nothing hidden from Him. We may not even know what's in there, but He does. The only way to be free of all those things we carry, is to dig down deep, pull them up and out of there and release them to the One who loves us the most. Those things may be down so deep we need His help to find them. We can ask Him for help, He will gladly oblige. It may take more than one cleaning, it may take a daily time of releasing it all bit by bit, but as we do, we will begin to enjoy the life we were called to live.

But the Scriptures have declared that we are all prisoners of sin,
so the only way to receive God's promise is to believe in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:22
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Jesus Christ came to set the captives free!

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.
Isaiah 61:1
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It is no surprise to Him that we are in bondage. It is no surprise to Him that we need to be set free from all the things that weigh us down. We may be surprised that the world weighs heavy, that our circumstances weigh heavy and that we are getting tired, but Jesus is not. That is why He came to this earth. He didn't want the enemy to have that power over us anymore. The only way the enemy can have that power today is because we give it to him. Let's take it back and give it to God!! He knows what to do with it! And He won't ask us to carry it around anymore. We will never see it again. It was bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross, and we don't have to concern ourselves with it anymore.

It is our choice. Why refuse the greatest gift we've ever been given?
Because we think it is better to hang onto the junk we have in our "drawer"?!!
Maybe we should rethink that one!!

Lord, here is my heart. My whole heart! It is full of stuff that I'm not proud of. It has stuff in there that may be green with envy, covered in grime, bitter in taste, filled with resentment, hardened with greed, you name it! I want to be rid of it all, and I want to replace it with YOU!!

And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires,
and I will put a new spirit in you.
I will take out your stony heart of sin and
give you a new, obedient heart.
Ezekiel 36:26
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Sounds good to me! Thanks God!

Living in His peace,
Diane