Mind clutter!

From "The Word For Today" by Bob Gass


"ONE THING I ASK OF THE LORD, THIS IS WHAT I SEEK."
PSALM 27:4 NIV

If you are really serious about developing your Spiritual life, begin by assessing what stands in your way. That requires honesty. The first challenge is how to deal with the stress in our lives and the resulting clutter it produces in our minds. Dr Howard Hendricks gives us four sources of mind clutter. Let's examine them carefully:

(1) Saying 'yes' to far too many things! Dr Lewis Sperry Chafer once said, 'Much of our activity is little more than a cheap anaesthetic to deaden the pain of an empty life'. All our 'going and doing' fails to address our core of emptiness.

(2) Not stopping to recharge our batteries! We dutifully pull out our day-planner and fill in the spaces between activities. But let's not fool ourselves; avoiding overlapping activities isn't planning. As a result we're a stressed-out, short-tempered, horn-blowing crowd, commuting between poorly planned activities that add little to our spiritual well-being.

(3) Failure to enjoy what we accomplish! Solomon wrote, "A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul" (Pr 13:19 NKJV). With always too much to do, we dash off to the next obligation, often without finishing the previous one, or taking time to stand back and savour a job well done. No wonder we worry that our existence seems meaningless.

(4) Owing more than we can repay. Next time you're faced with a credit purchase, wait! Don't necessarily say no. Just present your so-called 'need' to God before presenting it to the bank and see what He says about it.

If you're really serious about developing your spiritual life, deal with your mind clutter!