By David ReayFriday 24 Mar 2017LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Proverbs 24:29
29 Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
I’ll pay them back for what they did.” (NIV)
Some people have a bit of a hoarding mentality. They can’t bear to throw anything out and so junk accumulates. Garages, spare rooms, even whole homes can be cluttered with things that are kept for no positive purpose.
This creates obvious problems, but another sort of hoarding creates some even more serious problems. We hoard our hurts, our resentments. We have been wounded by someone in the past and we chew the cud of our resentment. We don’t let it go. We go over and over it, replaying the hurt and sometimes fantasising just how we are going to get back at that person.
It is a loser’s game. We are only doing damage to ourselves. Our minds become an ugly junk heap of festering wounds and long-remembered hurts. Space for creative thinking, godly meditation, love for others, is crowded out. We are unable to celebrate the present because we are consumed by the past.
It is not easy to declutter. We need the help of the one who has promised to come and make all things new. We need to learn from him the painful yet necessary art of forgiveness. We need Jesus: the great destroyer of junk heaps.
Blessings
David Reay