{"id":452,"date":"2011-02-24T18:59:12","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T18:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/?p=452"},"modified":"2011-02-24T18:59:12","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T18:59:12","slug":"we-all-got-junk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=452","title":{"rendered":"We All Got Junk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the things I have come to realize is that everyone has some junk in their lives.\u00a0 I am not talking about junk in our closets and storage rooms and garages, although we tend to accumulate junk in those areas as well.\u00a0 What I am talking about is our past.\u00a0 Each of us has a storage unit called our hearts.\u00a0 That is where we put things that have hurt us.\u00a0 That is where emotions get sent that we don’t know how to deal with.\u00a0 We stuff things into this area that was not meant to hold junk.\u00a0 When we do that over time it tends to slowly creep out in every area of our lives.\u00a0 The older we get the more difficult it is to keep our junk in that safe place deep inside us.<\/p>\n

What we choose to carry in our hearts can determine whether we take hold of the best life God has planned for us or struggle with the best always being just out of reach.\u00a0 Jesus showed us the way to keep this from happening.\u00a0 No matter what happened to him or around him, he forgave everyone of everything – immediately.\u00a0 When we can do the same, that is when we can live without junk.\u00a0 Just like the feathers that keep a duck from getting wet, forgiveness keeps us from accumulating junk.<\/p>\n

First Corinthians 13:5 says that love does not take into account a wrong that has been done to it, or a wrong suffered.\u00a0 When we stuff a wrong we have suffered it may sit there for a while and fester, or we keep picking it up and playing with.\u00a0 Then we try to get other people to pick up our junk by telling them all about it.\u00a0 They can end up adding to our junk by joining in the pity party or the bashing session.\u00a0 Hopefully we can find someone that will point us toward forgiveness and God.<\/p>\n

By letting things roll off of us like water off a duck, it allows us to keep going in life without getting stuck in all the junk.\u00a0 It is actually possible to get to a place where nothing offends us.\u00a0 If we decide beforehand, as Jesus did, that we are not going to stuff offenses into our hearts, it allows us to live with great peace.\u00a0 Psalm 119:165 says “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

When we are easily offended, we cannot have peace, but if we are not easily offended, we can live in great peace.\u00a0 So here are the questions to ponder: Is your heart light or heavy?\u00a0 Peaceful or troubled?\u00a0 Are some of the contents of your heart crowding out the peace and joy that God has for you?\u00a0 This is not an easy process and you may need some help to clean out the junk, but the freedom you experience is worth all the work.\u00a0 Start letting go of yesterday, start working on humility and forgiveness and see what happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I have come to realize is that everyone has some junk in their lives.\u00a0 I am not talking about junk in our closets and storage rooms and garages, although we tend to accumulate junk in those areas as well.\u00a0 What I am talking about is our past.\u00a0 Each of us has … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “We All Got Junk”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotional-health","category-spiritual-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}