CLUTTERED SPACES

Hi there!

How are you doing this fine day? How have these first days of November been for you? Here's hoping you're off to a great month and that if the month isn't going great yet, that God fixes it and helps you make the most of the month.

Welcome to today's gist. 

Have you ever eaten so much that you feel like you're about to pop? And then someone now comes and brings something you'd really love to eat (fresh soft bread if you're like me) but you really cannot take anything else in because you're so full of what you already ate. No matter how much you want to enjoy this new food that's been brought to you, you will not be able to: at the very least, you'd manage a bite to be able to say you ate the food but you will not be able to enjoy the food as you would have if you hadn't been so full of something else that you'd already eaten.

There was something God recently told me that made me take a pause, He told me that I wasn't enjoying as much of Him as I want to because I've cluttered myself with so many other things that have made it impossible for Him to give full expression to His essence in me. I kept wondering what these things were; my first thought was toward entertainment and I thought to myself that I've already refined my entertainment taste away from "secular" music, books and the like so wetin be the thing wey dey clutter me. 

I didn't have to wonder for long, God told me that He didn't say I cluttered myself with sin oo, He said I cluttered myself with things that didn't give Him room in my life. That was when I began to think again and I understood what God was telling me, the things I have been cluttered with aren't necessarily bad things or sinful things, although those things definitely clutter too, they're things that are, in and of themselves, good, but the way I have filled myself up with these inherently good things has become such that the space left for God was small. And because the space I left for Him was small, there was no way He could fully express Himself in me, after all no be God go declutter my life for me to give Himself space. 

Even as I write this, God has dropped in my heart one of the things that clutter my life, and this is probably going to be the hardest clutter to get rid of because it's become so ingrained in me that I just do it without thinking about it anymore but He just told me that as nice as that thing is, it's taking up His space and because it's taking up His space, He won't be able to do all that He wants to do in me with the little space I've given Him so I must make room.

This reminds me of a story my dad told me when I was younger: a man invited Jesus into his house and welcomed Him in but told Him to restrict His activities and presence to the Guest Room. Jesus did that of course and that night, the devil sent his agents to torment Jesus' host. When morning came, the man complained to Jesus about the fact that Jesus hadn't come to his rescue the previous night. Jesus told him that He had remained in the place where His activities had been restricted to and that the devil hadn't dared to enter the Guest Room. That night, the man asked Jesus to give him the Guest Room and take the rest of the house. When the devil dealt with him again that night, he woke up angry and asked Jesus why he was still under torment and Jesus replied that the only place the devil had been able to enter was the Guest Room where Jesus had been barred from. It was when the man finally gave his entire house to Jesus and put it under His control that he was able to enjoy torment free nights.

God is willing to do so much in us, what determines how much He eventually does in us is how much room we give Him in our individual lives. The truth is that we can never become so empty that God will not fill us, He is more than capable to fill us with as much of Himself as we make room for, it falls to us now to make room for Him and we must make room for Him if we want to enjoy Him.

As I say this, I know this is going to be a long and uncomfortable journey of stripping ourselves of what takes God's space. I'm only just beginning to so please feel free to join me in this journey of declutter, I'm hoping that when Christmas comes around, I'll be able to say that I have removed the things that are currently taking God's space in my life. 

Ask God to show you the things you're filling yourself up with that are taking His place and ask Him for the grace to declutter and give Him His rightful place in you.

I pray that God helps us give Him the room He deserves in our lives.

See you next week!

Love,

 

Achenyo. 

PS. I spoke last week about a 30 day challenge I'm in for this month where you write down each day, at least 3 things you're grateful to God for. I've found that doing this helps me remember the little things God has been doing for me that I may otherwise have neglected, I encourage you to join me, it's such a worthwhile endeavour.