Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Hoarding

James 5:15-17 (NIV ©2011)
15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Have you ever watched any of the “Hoarder” programs on television? I have and I find them disturbing and somehow fascinating at the same time. Each time I watch a program like this I determine that I am going to minimize, down-size, and give-away those things that are cluttering up my life and home.  At least annually we have a Yard Sale.  I've been known to look at something I've placed in the sale and 'take it back'.

What strikes me about the program is how the person who is being focused on has trouble seeing their hoarding as a problem and will rationalize that the items may be needed at some point in time. Generally there has been some catastrophic event in their life that has caused them to go a tad bit 'over the edge' with regard to collecting (read hoarding here) items.

On one such program the person of interest eventually became so belligerent, she sent the organizing/cleaning crew away. She was actually keeping chickens in her living area, a lot of them and a number of them were dead. I was mortified by what I was witnessing on this program! How could someone possibly live their life in this manner?

Later, as I was reflecting on this program, God moved my heart into the realization of the things (read sin here) that I am quietly hoarding away and allowing to pile up in the quite recesses of my soul. I wonder if He ever wonders how someone could possibly live like this… Yes, the seven deadly sins are alive and well and being hoarded in my spirit. So what to do? Confess. Repent. And find someone I can trust and become accountable to and with.

My Prayer:
Abba, Father, hear my prayer. Forgive me the many sins I commit. Forgive me those sins of omission. Help me to purge, eliminate and clean up my life. Help me to rid my spirit and my soul of all the debris I have willing collected. Guide and direct my steps this day. In Jesus’ name I pray ~AMEN!
Yours, because we’re His,

4 comments:

  1. Wow. I'm amazed at God's timing. I"m facing a medical test tomorrow that has me saying, "Lord, if I have sin in my heart that's opened the door to sickness, please shine your light on it, so I can repent."

    I never thought of sin as hoarding, but you are right!

    Thanks for this wise post, Tamara.

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  2. Tamara, this really spoke to my heart. As much as I am trying to declutter my home, I am also always struggling to declutter my heart and soul! I'm hoping my outward sign of disposing my 'hoarders nest' will somehow translate to cleaning out my spirit too!

    As far as other bloggers, I used to correspond with Janine on Facebook, and even though she sent an invite to her blog I think she had to close that down along with her Facebook account, something about being hijacked and stalked. I felt so bad for her, she's a good soul.
    And Jackie just fell off the face of the earth. No one has heard a word from her, Facebook account is closed, blogging has halted, and I think emails have even been sent back as 'undeliverable'.

    I didn't want to leave blogland like that. It's such an eerie feeling to have a relationship with someone and then for it to just be cut off completely without warning.
    I appreciate it so much when bloggers post that they will be taking a break, or even when they say good-bye for good, it's sad, but at least there is some kind of closure and a feeling that all is well.

    I have been having so much trouble with Blogger lately, but friends have told me of other blog outlets to use, so I may do that one day in the future.
    I hate to give up on Umma's World at Blogger though, it's an old familiar friend. So I'll just see what the future brings.
    I was able to get here by clicking on your name in the comment, otherwise it's impossible, my sidebar isn't working right anymore. I guess I'll have to take the time to re-do the whole list and copy and paste anew and just hope that will do the trick and it will work again. But I feel like every time I go into the 'gadgets' something else goes haywire.

    I love your prayer here, Tamara. I'm going to copy and paste it, print it out, and put it in my Bible.
    Thank you!
    All the best,
    Eileen

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  3. Ouch and thanks both. I can so relate. I am a pack rat and given the right circumstances I can see hoarding. I love the parallel to our sin nature as well. I am so with you on this one!

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  4. Now I can relate to this! To assist me in my "exterior" decluttering efforts, I've even started a page with a tab on my "thrifty" blog to help me see the progress. (Sometimes I can't see that I've made any!)

    The "interior" needs work, too. God is faithful!

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