Today we are continuing our five week study on Jesus over Everything, and if you missed any you can go back through our previous posts and check them out, with day 3’s devotion on Clear Out What Is Unnecessary. Let’s get started!

Clear Out The Unnecessary

Today I decided to include the video from Day 3, and Lisa is talking about substitute Saviors and cleaning out what is unnecessary. After you watch the video continue on to the post below it.

In day 3 of today’s devotion Lisa shares about a time when she went on a spending fast and purged some things in her home. She shares how that year God revealed to her how much she was using shopping as a “substitute savior” as she called it. See the way Lisa put it, we all have a substitute savoir in our lives at one time or another. It might not be shopping, maybe it is playing computer games like I spoke of last week, or maybe it is something as harmless as spending too much time watching television and not enough time with the Lord or getting things done around the home. Whatever it is, we tend to run to other things instead of running to Jesus. As Lisa puts it, the real calming to our chaos doesn’t happen when we pretend our lives away, instead we need to ask ourselves, “What are my idols?” See when we are substituting Jesus for other things or people, be it good or bad, we essentially have made them a god. I know this sounds silly, but if you are putting all your hope and time into something that ultimately doesn’t fulfill you and leaves you with guilt and shame, then you have made that “thing” your savior.

In Joshua’s day God provided the same long-lasting solution to the Israelites problems. All they had to do was get rid of the idols, declutter their lives and hearts, and turn back to Him. “Decluttering” has become a fad nowadays, but most times people are more likely to declutter their closet before decluttering their hearts. Just as Lisa explains, this is the formula for settling our lives, and it is exactly what we need to do. I would go so far as to say we should be doing this on a regular basis. I don’t know about you, but for me I find months will go by and I will realize – just like around my house – there is some purging that needs to be done. So today I encourage you to ask yourselves, “What idols have I put in place in my life?” And be honest with yourself, as well as allow the Lord to remove them from your life. Check out our three questions below, and remember, the ultimate settling of the chaos within us starts with decluttering and clearing out the unnecessary items we have built up within us. It may seem hard to do, but God said in his word that we can do all things through Him. I can, and so can you!

Prayer: Father, I want no idols in my life. I want no substitute saviors. I am tired of running to things that don’t fix me, heal me, or help me in the long term. I need You and want You to calm the chaos in my life. But in order to do that, I have to face what I’m running to instead of You. Will You help me? I call on Your name right now to show me the things that need to go and ask You to give me courage in the cleaning out. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Response:

• Where do you run when you are sad, scared, angry, or trying to take control of your life?

• What would happen if you fasted from that “go-to” for six weeks? Would God’s voice in your life become clearer?

• Make a list with two columns: on the left, what your go-to favorites in moments of chaos and stress are and how they help you and, on the right, what God could do for you in those moments (or a verse that is a promise for that situation). Compare what you wrote in the two columns. Which is better?

You can do hard things, and you can live a chaos-free life!

xoxo,

~ Angie ~