|
Listen to this devotional: |
Listen while you read: "God Will Take Care Of You"1 (Lyrics) |
How many times have you moved in your lifetime? It always amazes me to learn that some people live in the same house their entire lives, perhaps never even travelling more than five or ten miles from the place that they were born. Nevertheless, I imagine that most of us have moved several times over the years. I have moved at least 20 times and have travelled and lived halfway around the world as well.
Despite the many moves that I've made, the last move stuck for a long time. I lived in my last house for 40 years, the last five as a widow on my own. Several months ago, my daughter's family and I began looking ahead and determined that it would be wise for me to move 20 miles across town in order to be closer to them. So, when a place in a condo community just a mile from their house opened up, we took it as God's leading.
Then the work began. We realized that my belongings would have to be downsized by about half. I don't consider myself to be a hoarder by any means, but 40 years in the same house had allowed me to accumulate many things that I would now have to part with. This process took time, thought, and energy, but eventually, the move was successfully made.
I learned a lot about myself and life during this arduous process. I learned that everything that I may consider to be valuable and indispensable is not. In fact, my new adage is "You can save anything that you want to, but you really can't keep all of it forever." To finish my life's journey well, I have had to discard many possessions that I once considered to be irreplaceable.
There is a parallel here to our Christian life as well. The apostle Paul describes the Christian life as a race to be run. In order to successfully reach our goal, Paul tells us:
Philippians 3:13-14 – I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (NLT)
Hebrews 12:1b – 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. (NLT)
This process of parting with precious items from our past can be painful, but in both everyday life and in our walk with the Lord, it is necessary not to become weighed down with excess baggage. Whether it be sin or simply bad habits or other elements of daily life that should be discarded, we must rid ourselves of things that will hinder us in our service to our Master.
Prayer: Dear Father, please give us wisdom in separating important things in our walk with You from sinful practices and even just things that weigh us down. May our daily life be clean and simple as we focus on what is truly important. Amen.
Forward this devotional Share this devotional on Facebook Like PresbyCan on Facebook
Although PresbyCan doesn't have a mobile app, you can still have a PresbyCan icon on your mobile phone home screen. 
Tuesday, November 28, 2023 – In Cuba — Pray that Los Pinos Nuevos(LPN) pastors would serve with passion, always guided by God amidst this current crisis in Cuba, and that they would always show love in practical ways as they proclaim the gospel. Pray that each LPN pastor would have a vibrant spiritual life of communion with God and dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Prayer for Healing.: "Update November 27, 2023: A is feeling much better. Thank you for your prayers. M passed away,..." 
Granddaughter M: "Update November 26, 2023: M's back is improved. She has resigned from her former job which was..." 
A wonderful message for this time in our lives. Thanks.
Yes, Gail! Boiled down to the nuts and bolts, clear and concise. Helps me today. With thanks.
I have been a frequent mover as well, Gail. Most of the time not by choice. I was a PK and then became a preacher.
Hi Gail
As a long time subscriber to the Daily, I have enjoyed and been challenged by many of your contributions. Many thanks.
Blessings.
So true, Gail… and we appreciate the TAMU yearbooks. We are planning a gathering of Aggies and going to have them bring their own yearbooks so we can compare how things have changed.
I bet you are doing very well in your new location.
Thanks, again, for your wise words today.
Dear Gail,
Your devotional experience touched me where I live. Off and on, I begin to sort and sift belongings, wondering why I have kept so many mementoes that I thought were so important to carry along through life, when God’s grace is large enough to cover all of our needs. I appreciate your reminder to lighten our load and go onward.
Amen Gail!
A few years ago, l, along with all the dogs, moved from a 2000 square foot home to a 380 square foot home, so l definitely know what you mean about downsizing. And l am extremely happy in my new digs, as are the dogs. We have everything we need.
Be blessed.
Dear Gail,
Thanks for another of your special devotionals. I sure can relate with you about the accumulation of “stuff” that gathers over the years and we feel it is important to keep. The really important thing is for us to keep our lives free of sin and seek our loving Lord to keep a “clean heart” within us. Praise and glory to Him.
Blessings for writing.
Oh Gail, I so identified with your ‘Big Move’ as I’m in the midst of downsizing to move to a condo in a few weeks!
My husband also died and we had lived here since the early 1970’s, having just made one simple move after 2 years in our apartment!
What an emotional time!
Thanks for sharing your perspective. It helps knowing others have travelled a similar road!
I too face a massive daily task to dispose of many mementoes, minutes of societies I have belonged to, old news and pictures, needed for autobiographies and family histories that I am writing daily. My home is a museum, and I am looking for Great grandchildren to tell me what they want to inherit. That is impossible for their parents to know. Also, a multicultural museum where items can be meaningfully exhibited for many. In BC there are 100 museums, but they focus on local, not world history. Please pray for me and others like me who have worked around the world. I will soon be 100 years old.
Good afternoon Gail,
Good devotional today, we should indeed not be weighed down with things of the world, but it is so hard to part with some of it isn’t it. We have a lot in common. As a young lad at home, we moved 4 times. My wife and I moved many times in the first 20+ years of our married life. In every province from Quebec west, Ohio and Kentucky, the Netherlands, England and Austria. When I refocused, not retired, we lived in the same house for 35 years. Had to downsize when we moved to a bungalow, will have to do it again if and when we have to or should move out of this place, where we have been for a few years now.
Thank you for writing.
Blessings.
Dear Gail,
I am one of those people who have moved very little. I grew up in one home and stayed there until I married. We lived in an apartment until my hubby finished his degree and then we bought a home and are still there. Even though I haven’t moved I have gained a similar attitude as the results of cleaning homes of my parents and brothers who have passed away in the last few years.
It is a great analogy with our Christian life and asking for forgiveness for our sins and keeping our faith. God knows our sins but actually telling him about them is freeing. No longer having to keep those deep secrets can be so moving. I think that we have to learn this lesson many times in our lives because holding on to those secrets is a hard habit to break.
Thank you for sharing your story and may your prayer come true. Blessings.
Hi Gail
Oh, how I can relate to this. We moved from Canada in September.
We lived in that house since we got married. The things I gave away, or my children came and got, it was painful since some of those things were things my dad and mom gave as gifts, but I could not take all of them. I took pictures of pics that I was not going to bring with me and there went more history and memories. The thing that kept me going was, I knew that the move was God’s plan, not mine. We come here for the winter months and go back in the spring. He told me this was the time to move. The thing that made me cry here is when I had to give up my Canadian driver’s licence for a Portuguese one. I thought, well, there goes the last of my identity as I cried but as tears rolled down my face, I said no… my identity that matters is I am a child of God!!! So believing we are where we are supposed to be and already seeing signs we are, I am thankful!!! My kids are enjoying the things their grampa and gramma made and other useful things. God bless you and thank you for your devotional.
When my mother died, years ago, my sister and I went through her things. It was sad to note how often she bought 5 of something for gifts someday. And most of all, lovely clothing she never wore but kept “for good.”
Life is to Be lived “in the present.”
When we go, the question then becomes, what will we do with their “stuff”?
Hello Gail,
Thank you for your message. I know that the time has come and that I must divest of much of what I once valued. I find so often that it is the ‘memories’ that things invoke that makes the chore a challenge.
I will overcome, as you rightly note.
Again, thank you for your messages of faith.