As I drove through a local neighborhood recently, looking at all the beautiful homes, I began thinking about the attics these homes possess. I had no reason to ponder the storage areas of these homes, but I just kept thinking about how much stuff must be packed in each house.
Some people probably have nicely organized, clean attics, but the ones I’ve seen throughout the years have been a chaotic mess filled with an assortment of things. Many contain numerous storage bins and boxes stacked haphazardly around the space, making finding something a guessing game because the boxes aren’t labeled, and no one remembers what’s in them.
Whether the space is beautifully arranged or terribly cluttered, every home probably has a bunch of stuff stored somewhere within its walls. As I thought about this, God reminded me that the same is true for people. All our experiences–victories and defeats, good times and bad times, relationships, memories, education, and every season of life–make up who we are. All these things are stored within us and impact how we live our lives.
For many of us, we cram what we’ve obtained from years past into various mental compartments and never sort through it or discard the harmful things. It feels easier to push it all into an unlabeled box and try to forget it’s there. But those boxes just pile up, and over time those piles get heavier and heavier. The weight of it all makes it hard for us to make sense of our lives or even understand our own actions. We often say and do things we never imagined doing and live in a state of shame, regret, and perpetual unhappiness.
God knows what’s in each and every box. He knows what needs to be gotten rid of and what needs to be used. He knows which boxes contain beautiful memories that we need to cling to and which ones are filled with trauma and difficulty that need to be worked through. He knows that leaving those boxes untouched will only harm us and that leaving it all for your children to deal with when you die is selfish and disastrous—the perfect illustration of generational curses.
Ephesians 5:13-16 says, “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said, ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.”
God wants us to open the boxes we’ve stored away so He can illuminate and expose them accordingly. Every single item will become a light, revealing the truth about who you are, why you act the way you act, why you say the things you say, why you believe what you believe, and why you treat others the way you do. As you sort through those things and allow the Holy Spirit to rid you of things that no longer benefit you and rise up the dead parts within you, you’ll be able to truly live your life, making the most of every opportunity instead of simply being alive.
Keeping our “stuff” hidden feels easier and we foolishly believe there will be no consequences for doing so, but each box that is thrown in the attic and never sorted through only increases our heartache and the strain on generations to come.
Each house I drove by has an attic or some other area for storage, and the same is true for us. It’s time to open the boxes, sort through the stuff, and allow God to reveal what needs to stay and what needs to go. It may be a difficult task, but it won’t be one you’ll regret doing!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Tori Shaw
Featured Image by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash
FREE INDEED
TORI SHAW
PURCHASE OR DOWNLOAD A SAMPLE
[…] Open the full article on the kingdomwinds.com site […]