Good
Morning All,
1Peter 5:7; “casting
all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you”
My office habits are not necessarily the
greatest. I am a proponent of “organized mayhem” or “controlled clutter”. I do
not really file things; it is more that I pile things. I have a pile on this
corner of my desk and then a pile on the other corner of my desk. One pile is
for marriage counseling stuff. One pile is for the LWML stuff. There is a pile
on an upside-down plastic milk crate that has stuff for the next week’s service.
There is a pile on the side table by my chair that has sermon prep stuff. There
is a pile by the printer that is miscellaneous church mail. There is a pile of
books on my library shelves from various study material. A new pile is forming
for confirmation and then there are just the seeds of a pile for more
electronic preaching. It is mayhem but moderately organized.
Yet sometimes, especially if things get a
little hairy and harried, the piles get a little deep. Sometimes, I just have
to stop and take an afternoon and start throwing things away. I just hope as I
go through it that nothing of an importance emerges from the bottom of one of
the piles. So far nothing major has shown up. But I do find a fair amount of
material that really does not need to be kept. It might be duplicate material,
it might be outdated, or it might not seem as valuable or important as it did a
few weeks ago. Sometimes I need to go through the piles in my office. Sometimes
we need to go through the piles in our life as well.
Sometimes we keep piles of past sins, past
worries and past hurts and fears around too long. Every so often, you need to
go through and truly clean house. When we hold onto these painful, past events,
they pull us back from Christ and his love. They serve to distract us from
focusing on God’s grace and his promise of salvation. It causes us to lose
sight of God’s promised mercy in our life. Holding onto the past pain short
circuits our contentedness and our ability to genuinely enjoy the life that God
has for us.
Jesus invites us to get rid of those
sorrows and worries. He invites us to cast them on his back. He invites us to
replace our anxiety with his peace, peace that only God’s mercy can give us. So,
go through your “piles” in your life. Are there worries that are outdated? Are
there worries that occur over and over? Are there worries that are not
important to us at all? Then cast them away. Don’t keep the baggage; that only
serves the devil. Cast off the unneeded and the unwanted cares and sorrows of
this life. Jesus has removed our sins and with this, has given to us the certainty
of God’s grace. So, clean out the piles that are hurting you. Give them to God
for he loves you and cares for you.
Father of all mercy; help me
to clean up the piles in my life. Help me to throw away those things in my life
which cause me pain. Help me to have a clean heart and spirit that I may better
serve you. Be with those who are struggling with the piles that are building in
their life. Lead them from the destruction of the world and the devil and to
return to you and your peace. In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior,
we pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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