Declutter
After 20 plus years in this house, I am amazed at the amount of clutter we have accumulated. Boxes of it. Stacks of it. “What did we keep this for?” We ask one another.
Yep, it is time to declutter. Get rid of all the “stuff” (junk) that has built up over time. Time to declutter. Not bad or evil but just takes up space and attention.
I have been in the process of decluttering my faith also. Several years ago I began to look at my faith and realized that over the years I had picked up from churches, my denomination and personal life a number of thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that were outside the teachings of Jesus or marginal to his teaching and that of the New Testament.
For instance my view of God was mostly carried over from the Old Testament not as seen through the lens of Jesus. I saw much of the moral teachings of the NT through the lens of the OT and Fundamentalist rule keeping. I felt God was more interested in what I did NOT do rather than developing the Fruit of the Spirit in me. I was more interested in church than His Kingdom.
I realized that much of that, although it was not always bad, kept my focus away from the essential: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us ANEW in Christ Jesus, so we can do THE GOOD THINGS he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.2.8-10.NLT
I am getting rid of the clutter so I can focus on what will endure “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.13.13.NLT
Jesus has taken care of my sin so that I can focus on the good works of giving Faith to those still in darkness, Hope to those who have lost Hope, and Love for those that feel unloved by God, the Church or man.