Hoarding – the persistant difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value.
We hang on to things that are keeping us from realizing all God has in store for us:
our hurts, habits, and hang-ups.
Hurts, habits, and hang-ups can knock us off of God’s plan and throw us into a worldy detour headed toward destruction and despair.
Hurts
Any life experience that may have damaged your heart, your emotions, your psyche.
An offense that cripples your ability to deal with the world in a healthy way.
Recognize the hurt. How has it affected your life?
Identify the emotions. (Ex. Shame, abandonment, etc).
Seek God’s help.
Get connected in Christian Community.
Seach me. Oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
Psalm 139:23 New Living Translation (NLT)
Express the hurt and reconcile if safe/possible.
God gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak.
Isaiah 40:29 (NLT)
If necessary, seek outside/professional help.
Let go.
Forgiveness – to be free of what is holding us hostage; not letting the past control our future.
Habits
Unhealthy patterns that often start as a percieved “remedy” but turn into chronic bad behavior or addiction.
The repeat, default scripts we run to when the going gets tough.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
Exodus 20:3-4a (NIV)
Admit the problem.
Seek God’s help to break the cycle.
If necessary, seek outside help.
New friends. Christian community.
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience.
And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
I Corinthians 10:13 (NLT)
Hang-Ups
General roadblocks that keep us from progressing forth in God’s plan for your life.
Shaped by some bent thinking or unhealthy attitudes adopted as a means of coping with life’s challenges.
Pray. Ask God to reveal the hang-up.
Admit the problem.
Seek God’s loving presence in your life.
Get connected in Christian community; seek outside help.
What are you hoarding?
Jesus’ power if greater than your worst-case scenario!
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you;
he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)
…a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 COR. 12:7b-10 English Standard Version (ESV)