Refining and decluttering

Published 7:34 pm Thursday, December 7, 2023

I have started cleaning out closets and other areas of my house and storage areas. I confess that I am a “collector.” I have had a hard time throwing away most anything – for years! I usually have a reason, however lame, for keeping items that I may “need” someday – or someone else may need. My sisters have been harassing me for a few years to de-clutter and I have pretty much ignored their pleas. But, I needed more closet space so I removed 29 photo albums that belonged to my mother, who has been deceased eight years from one of the closets in her old bedroom (now my guest room). My sisters and I are going through each album (many memories) pulling out photos that are meaningful and then at Christmas will give all her grandchildren an opportunity to do the same!

I probably have several thousand books, mostly on book shelves scattered through most every room in the house. That will be a harder task which I will have to do myself. So many classics (keepers), so many that I would like to read again, many that are well worn and marked. How will I decide what I can give away or throw away? As a writer, I may not do a very good job, because I treasure what others have written.

The third area that I did purge a few years ago is old journals and notebooks, but it is time to do it again. I just hate to think I might throw something away that I might want to quote or refer to in my current ponderings and research! I still have boxes and piles of insights on most anything I ever felt was worth recording. I looked at several things recently and thought to myself, if somehow I could just read this and retain the information in my brain, I could get rid of a lot of clutter!

However, I think my brain needs de-cluttering because most of those files are not well organized and to dig through 76 years of information is a rather tedious job! We shall see how that project goes when I finally do decide to tackle it!

I keep one daily journal that includes “life” stuff and current insights. I have had that practice for almost sixty years. I usually read through the previous year at the end of that year and highlight things I may want to remember and even put in a separate journal. So at the end of this month, I will review 2023 and pull out a few nuggets of insights or history-making moments to help me navigate this new year to come.

I have been on a journey this past year of refining my God-given Identity. Here are a few insights I wrote down in one of this year’s notebooks. “It is knowing your identity that unlocks your destiny.” “When I know who I am (identity), I have all that I need (abundant resources available), so that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “We do not get our identity from what we do but we get our identity from what we were created to do.” “Live from your identity, not from your behavior.” In other words, even when we don’t always do it right and we sometimes make mistakes, it does not change who God created us uniquely to be. Once we know who we are in Christ, we are unstoppable and unbeatable. Most of us have not fully grasped that truth. We have believed the lies that our enemy has told us (just like Adam and Eve) therefore we do not live from a place of victory that Jesus has already paid for – for each one of us who call Him Savior.

I believe it is going to be more important than ever before to live from that place of knowing who we are. If you are alive today, the Lord has a plan and a purpose for you that is designed to further His Kingdom here on this Earth. Yes, the darkness seems to be getting darker – very rapidly — but we are called to defeat and overcome the darkness. Like Esther who was created to be queen and intercede for her brethren, so each one of us was “created for such a time as this.” Our lives can make a difference in the lives of others – perhaps an individual, a family or, like Esther, a nation. Her obedience saved the Jewish people from complete annihilation which was the enemy’s plan.

A friend of mine that teaches on identity recently made several statements that I believe are true but also an important key to everything else in our lives. “We can best find our true identity from a place of His presence (intimacy). When we get into that alignment, we will move into our assignment.”

She helps others get into that place of intimacy through helping them deal with heart wounds that have kept them bound and then is able to bring a healed heart before Papa God for direction through coaching them to begin to operate from the Identity that God created them to function and live from. I have been a beneficiary of her insights and wisdom.

Most of us are motivated by what Leif Hetland calls an orphan spirit. “We do something to have something to become something”. When you live from a spirit of adoption, loved and cherished by our Creator and Father, you will operate from your true identity. Brian Simmons, editor of the Passion Translation says it this way: “Identity comes through experiencing the passionate love of God.” What you behold, you can become! We are His masterpiece, made in His image. Everything was created by Him to bring Him glory including you and I. It is an age old question – Who am I? Even Mark Twain stated “that the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you discovered or found out why.”

When Adam and Eve were deceived by our enemy satan, he asked them a question that put doubt in their hearts about their Father God. Then he accused God and brought further confusion into their hearts and minds. They then acted out of doubt and fear and exchanged paradise for chaos and all of humanity has felt the awful effects of their disobedience. But God had devised a plan to redeem humanity from before the foundation of this present world, before time began. We are close to the tipping point and our enemy knows his time is short. He has pulled out every trick and scheme to change times and seasons but God will have what He planned and ordained – sons and daughters who know who they are who can rule and reign from that place of identity. They will be His instruments of restoration and will bring the rest of the world to know and understand the truth.

What an exciting time to be alive. If you are reading this, realize God has a plan for your life that is good. Ask Him to make it plain, if it is not. Spend time every day with Him, getting to know Him better. He is good and His plans for you will fulfill those inner longings and desires that He actually placed inside you!