Spring cleaning-Emotional clutter

closet

It’s time for some spring cleaning. I know.  You are thinking, “It’s still February.” Well, I live in Minnesota and would rather skip ahead to spring. It has been a long cold winter, and I’m ready to move on. Are you in that place?  Are you ready to move on?

My spring cleaning starts with closets. Yes, that picture is a closet in my house.  Shocking, I know.  It’s a little disorganized.  I bet if you took a minute, you could find an area in your life that’s a little disorganized.  Maybe it’s not physical clutter, maybe it’s emotional clutter. I’ve certainly had my share of emotional clutter to sort through. And, getting rid of emotional clutter feels much better than getting rid of physical clutter. When we get rid of negative memories, wounds, hurts we feel physically lighter. It’s like instantly losing weight.  Are you willing to try it?

I think a great way to get started is just like cleaning a closet.

  • Begin by taking out all of the “stuff.”  You have to unpack all of the memories. It is easy for them to get mixed together and misinterpreted. You don’t have to do your entire lifetime. Pick a small range of years.
  • Do some reminiscing as you sort through.
  • Put the good memories in a box and back in the closet-much like you would an old box of photographs.
  • Put the hurts, anger, fear, wounds etc in a garbage bag.  By that, I mean hand it over to God and tell Him you release this person, situation to His care. It is only bringing you continued pain. Invite the Holy Spirit to wash your heart clean.

The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

28-29 Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. (Hebrews 12:27-29 MSG)

Some of us have piled up lots of garbage. Remember large, heavy wounds require help. They are too heavy to carry out by ourselves. This is a great place to seek trained counselors, pastors, family, small groups etc. to help you carry out the XXL garbage.

Garbage is exactly what it is. It weighs us down.  It clutters up our hearts. It gets in the way of our relationships. It prevents us from living our full potential. God promises to clean it out. It is His desire to set us free of all of our emotional garbage.

This spring I’m cleaning my heart from memories of anger-rage. It’s time for me to be done reacting like a wounded puppy every time I interact with someone else’s anger. It’s time for me to stop shutting down and retreating. Someone else’s confrontation or anger does not mean I’m wrong or worthless.

“Thank you Lord for your promise to set me free. I release these persons from the wounds they have brought in to my life. Please enter my heart and wipe it clean of all the hurt and misunderstanding of  anger-rage. Lord, replace it with Your Holy Spirit and allow me to share with others this freedom I have found in You.”

What emotional garbage are you putting in the trash to be burned? I would love to hear how it goes.  If you don’t know where to start, ask God.  He will show you.

 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.