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We have all been there, maybe it’s something you are overjoyed in doing. Others dread it, but know it’s necessary. The great purge. We see it with the approach of the new year, or the good ol’ “Spring Cleaning” events that all households endure. We vow to make it all sparkle and make room for what’s necessary. Decluttering what’s been collecting dust, motivation to start new again. That feeling of joy we get when the task is complete and an even bigger pat on the back of our old becoming someone else’s new. Somehow it’s just become a normal thing. We never question the clutter until it becomes oppressive. We keep collecting, purchasing, receiving, and adding until we realize we once again need to make room for the new. So what does this all have to do with our spiritual health? What if I said to you, that the focus we put in the physical things of this world, is a priority we need to make of the things dwelling in ourselves. Mark 2:22, NIV: "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.  The wine will burst the skins...the things we refuse to be rid of, to purge, that are not of God will burst the spirit. Has it set in yet?
Let me ask you with some examples. The relationship that ended suddenly and painfully, the words left unspoken. The feeling of being wronged that you refuse to address. The person or situation that you can’t think of without pain. The identity you refuse to pick up from fear. The ideology you hold onto that is nowhere to be found in scripture, but it continues because “that’s just how it is.” Are we there yet? Have I stirred something within you? This is not a space where I bring judgment. This is a space I ask you to partner with God. To purge what breaks His heart. To shake the rotten fruit and dead things that are weighing down the new wine skin given when you became His. What’s collecting dust in your spirit that you refuse to release? Is there something you stored and collected an abundance of to avoid the calling set upon you? What thoughts have become so oppressive that it feels like there is too much weight to hold it all? Now let’s just address this very last thing, the most important. Do you trust the garbage man, the people at Goodwill, and the friend who you passed the clutter more easily than God? Why not release the old wine to the one who designed you? You realize this new wine is the purest most delicious thing you will ever consume. Why not let that anthem be “Fill me up Lord, overflow this wine skin with the well that is you!It’s time to purge. To know Jesus will take that pain no matter how long you have let it fester or how deep you think you’ve buried it. To trust God with the things you are gripping so tight it’s beginning to die. To let Him renew your mind and unlock chains. To restore a hope that you thought lost. To get to a place where even if pieces of the puzzle are missing, you know that HE stands beside you, and that is enough. Start labeling those spiritual storage bins, and let God clean them out. ~Your sister dancing in the vineyards with arms wide open. Denise Jolly *This post was originally created for Saturated Women of Columbia
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Like many who do this blogging thing, I had found myself starting out strong and overly passionate to what I was going to commit and provide. It happens, we coming flying out the gate, hopes and expectations. Stars in our eyes. This. Is.My.Moment!! And life happens, and you only get one like, no shares. Disappointment sets in. We get rattled. "Okay Lord, why am I pouring myself into this?" It's for sure not for the random spam entry forms, or the beating myself up because I misspelled something after I hit publish. Through it all, you still realize the calling. Most of all that God is giving you a voice. And if that voice means you encouraged, or gave hope to one person that day, it was worth it. It was worth the vulnerability, and transparency. "But we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."~ 1 Peter 2:9 I've been blessed to be called into many areas of ministry. Be it the friend, the listener, a wife, mother, student, teacher. Recently it has been writer, pastor, counselor, Changing as I grower deeper with God. Moments of running, and pursing things not meant for me. There is beauty in the changing and growing. Seeing God work in your life, and give you change in passion and voice. When I started this blog life was different. So where my passions. Though still there, I have a spark that will not go unheard. So that is where we shift.  As I've walked through cancer, watching my boys grow, learning to live post military life, God has been calling me to something deeper. A ministry that was planted in my heart when I was discipled 10 years ago in a worn Army chapel located in Northern Italy. When someone handed me the keys that began to break chains on who I was in Christ. That freedom of knowing all that God could and would call me to be at any given moment.
So here we are. The place where I share what's given me that freedom. Those truths that I am called when He calls me daughter. That as a women in The Kingdom we have a voice, we are given missions, the "all authority" applies to you as well. So lets honor God together by stepping into being His daughters. Lets dive in the hard places, read His word, and share the heart of discipleship. Where we are, when we feel that tug on our hearts despite what the world says. So lets go, pick up that crown and get ready to make the best kind of trouble. |
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