Simplify Your Life

Simplify Your Life

Simplify your life - flowingfaith.comThis month, I’ve been partaking in a challenge of getting rid of stuff. The goal is to get rid of as many things as the date number. The first day you get rid of one thing and on the second day, you part ways with two things and so on. During the month of January, it will around to 496 things all together. Not easy but so good. Getting rid of unused or otherwise unnecessary things makes room for peace and contentment. It feels good to simplify your life.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (1 Tim. 6:6-8, NIV,*)

Simplify your life

Clutter in our home and/or in our life prevents us from fully enjoying and experiencing the joy of living. We don’t even notice it but it’s true nonetheless. There’s freedom in letting go. If we fill our homes and our minds with junk, there really is no peace. But when we declutter our living spaces and our souls, there are peace and happiness more readily available. It’s time to simplify your life: Less junk, more Jesus.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1, NLT, emphasis added,*)

Taking care of stuff takes us away from serving God. Owing can be a burden and stuff can slow us down. When we get rid of stuff that we don’t need any longer, we create space for the new thing God is doing in our lives. I know it is very easy to get attached to stuff. But the stuff does not bring security we crave. We always want more. And more. Yet stuff – or sin – never delivers. Only Jesus does.

 

Gracious God,
Help us to declutter our lives.
Enable us to get rid of anything and everything
that hinders our work in your kingdom
or starts to take your place in our lives.
We want less junk, more of you.
Become our everything.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Is it easy for you to get rid of stuff? How do you simplify your life?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you simplify your life according to God’s plan for you!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses toBiblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.].

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash. Linking up today with Dance with JesusFive-minute Friday.

8 thoughts on “Simplify Your Life

  1. What a GREAT idea to get rid of 1 thing on the 1st, 2 things on the 2nd, etc. That’s pretty ruthless! 🙂 But so needed. I don’t know — sometimes we hold on to “stuff” as a way of feeling secure and protected, when of course possessions and objects are just that: “stuff” that’s here today and gone tomorrow. Simplifying can be so freeing and so helpful in setting our priorities. Glad to have read your post today.

    Jeannie (next door to you at #42 in the FMF linkup)

    1. I thought so too. I might repeat this challenge in a couple of months. Even though it is pretty ruthless. But it helps you to get on with the task for sure. Simplifying really is freeing! Thanks so much, Jeannie, for sharing your thoughts. Abundant blessings to you!

  2. Loved this post! In our move from the Midwest to Pennsylvania I had to fit everything in the moving truck. any extra had to go – to our kids, donated, or tossed. “Purge! Purge! Purge!” became my battle cry. I found it freeing to release those things we couldn’t use or didn’t need.
    Visiting from FMF spot #43. God bless!

  3. Mari-Ann, I so admire the way you have embraced this challenge, especially as it gets harder each day! Well done, you! These lines spoke volumes to my heart: “Clutter in our home and/or in our life prevents us from fully enjoying and experiencing the joy of living” Yes, that’s so true. And I hope this will be the year when I can finally get rid of the extraneous internal and external stuff that is weighing me down in my soul and home. Thank you for this inspiring word! 🙂 x

  4. Good for you taking the January decluttering challenge! We spent a couple of years getting rid of “stuff” as we prepared to sell our big old house in town. It sold Dec. 2016, and we moved into a 300-sq-ft fifth wheel at our farm with plans to start building a farmhouse. Furniture and “household” was stored. Then Life happened… and a year later we still haven’t started our house. 2017 was a year of simplicity at its best! We hope to break ground in the next month or so, and I look forward to once again surrounding myself with some of my “pretties” . . . but whatever we don’t use will NOT be stored in the future. No more clutter! It’s so free-ing. I suspect you’ll feel the same way by the end of January when you’re 496 items lighter!

    1. Wow! What a year! I’m sure there are some great lessons there along the way! Thanks for sharing your story. Yes, I am looking for the results of this decluttering process. I might do it again in a couple of months. Abundant blessings for you as you start to build a new home!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RSS
Follow by Email