The Junk Drawer
by Connie Vyverberg

At our house, like many of us, we have designated a particular drawer in our kitchen to store things like receipts, wallets, watches and who knows what else. When we aren’t sure what to do with something, we simply dump it into that drawer. After a while, dumping turns into cramming the stuff inside. What starts out as being a legitimate but temporary “catch all”, eventually turns into more of a Junk Drawer”.

Over the years, I’ve found that the busyness of life can hinder me from periodically cleaning this drawer out. Many things we really should be throwing away, get stuck in the drawer for far too long. When I finally do clean out the clutter, I’m always surprised at some of the ridiculous items I’ve mindlessly hung onto. Certainly, everyone can relate.

Similarly, our souls can easily begin to resemble that junk drawer. While we live in a fast paced society, it is easy to not take the time necessary to refresh and replenish ourselves properly. If not watchful, we can wrongly hold onto such deadly emotions as fear, anger, anxiety, bitterness, grief and resentment storing them on the inside of us day after day. Many of us find ourselves filled with these emotions, or others that are equally as bad, that need to be discarded rather than stored in the drawer of our heart. If we continue to cram inside of us more and more of these kinds of negative emotions, we can find ourselves being held captive to an increasingly destructive thought life. Harmful emotions have the strong potential of causing a variety of illnesses; not to mention much unhappiness.

All of us experience the demands of every day life. Some people have had to deal with tragic events that happen. Life is filled with negative circumstances and they do create tremendous pressures on the inside of us. Therefore, it is important for us as Christians to learn the principals in God’s word that will enable us to process and deal with those pressures in a positive way (Eph. 4:23, 24). We cannot allow things like anger, anxiety, fear and various offences to clog us up on the inside and rule over that which is good and edifying (Eph. 4:31,32). We need to have clean, healthy thoughts and emotions for a successful, productive, fruit bearing life. No mater what the circumstances, God has given us the ability to think and the free will to make choices. Therefore, the choices we make in how we handle difficult relationships or problems that we face in life will ultimately effect our emotional makeup. Our thought life is a production center. It will produce either happy, life giving emotions or the opposite. Our circumstances are not suppose to dictate what our reactions are to situations. We are to be governed by the Spirit of God. As we learn to better walk with the Lord through prayer and studying His word, we will learn to live increasingly free from debilitating emotional bondages and replace them with the good and life giving emotions that He has created us for from the beginning!

 

 

Copyright © 2008. Author Connie Vyverberg. All Rights Reserved.

 

Church Tonight Ministries
239 Lexington Place
Sevierville, TN  37862
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(865) 774-6476

 

Bruce and Connie Vyverberg are available for speaking engagements.