The Best Cure for Heart Hoarders
Have you ever watched an episode of Hoarders?
I used to have a dream that I lived in a huge house full of doors, many of which were locked. I often wondered what it meant. The Lord whispered that the doors represented rooms of my heart that I kept locked from Him. Those secret hidden places I had filled with junk. Rooms piled high with pain, anger, hurt feelings, failures, weaknesses . . . the list goes on and on.
Do you have rooms filled with junk?
Hoarders’ rooms are never neat and organized. Stuff is always piled high and mixed together. It’s impossible to find what they need and they waste precious time trying to find hiding objects. My heart’s junk rooms caused similar problems. I could begin a day just fine, but hidden junk would come to mind and I’d end up wasting time staring at it, handling it, and holding it close.
I’m so thankful the Lord’s faithful quiet voice said, “Open the doors and let me take your junk. Let me forgive, heal, encourage, and give you peace.”
Hoarders don’t have peace.
The Lord can’t fill our hearts with His peace when they are filled with junk. There simply isn’t room for both.
Hoarders don’t have visitors.
When we keep junk locked in our hearts, we don’t let people get too close to us. We’re afraid they’ll see our junk. So, we keep them outside and only show them a facade that we keep polished and presentable.
Hoarders need help.
If we finally decide to get rid of some of our junk, we have trouble tossing things that have become old favorites. A little grudge. A little bad habit. A little envy. We need help. Help that can only come from the One who is able to take it all and give back what is “true, right, pure, and lovely.” Philippians 4:8
Hoarders need prayer.
We pray and ask God to help us. We will pray that He will help people we know and care for.
But the best part is—Jesus is praying for us.
Take a few minutes to read John 17.
This prayer has three parts:
1. Jesus prayed to “bring glory to the Father and to Himself”– The purpose of Jesus request, in John 17:1–5, was that the Father would be glorified by the SON . . . that God’s wisdom, power, and love might be known through Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. And that He would have everything needed to accomplish His purpose.
2. Jesus prayed for His disciples – “those You gave to me,” John 17:6–19. We are created by and belong to the Father, His to give and to use for His purposes . . . that of revealing and glorifying God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. Jesus prayed for you and me – He prayed in John 17:20–26 that we would be unified in faith, protected from the evil one, and ultimately that – “Your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”
John 17 is one of the rare places where we can fully read one of Jesus’ prayers. It is the place where we can know that we (you and I) were on Jesus heart and mind as He went to the cross. It’s personal.
You and I are forgiven.
We can fling open the doors to our junk, and allow Jesus to remove it. He won’t organize it into neat piles, baskets, or bookshelves. He gets rid of it. We don’t need it. It’s junk, and it just gets in the way of every relationship and every purpose.
And when our junk is gone . . . there is room for truth, peace, joy, contentment, and love.
So open those doors, and do it as often as necessary. Hoarders sometimes let their old bad habits return. That’s okay. Jesus understands, loves, forgives, and prays. Praise God, He prays!
Let’s talk: As we prepare for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter what doors do you need to open? What junk needs to go?
I used to work for a cleaning company and once we were called to clean out the house of a hoarder. I had never seen anything like that before. Stuff piled to the ceiling! The woman who lived their had an addiction to buying things on QVC. It was all very sad and depressing.
The ironic thing is that hoarders obtain and keep all that junk because they believe it will make them happier and make their lives better. Unfortunately their stuff keeps them imprisoned in their own homes and ruins their life.
Hoarding in the heart is similar, we hold on to what we think is making us happy but Jesus says give it up and take me instead and I’ll give you real joy!
Wow Caleb, what happened? Was the company able to help her get things cleaned out.
We really do need help cleaning out our junk don’t we? But the joy of letting it go is the best!
I think we took out about 3 or 4 truck sized dumpster loads of garbage!
Sounds like a huge job. Motivation to stay clutter free.
prayer for our eldest sibling, Henry Jose.
He’s been a hoarder over the last 20+ yrs. the hoard has multiplied in every room – plain junk, newspapers, old bottles, bags anything… he can’t throw them away. small piles keep growing in every corner….
He is very strong-willed and stubborn, being the eldest, we can’t talk to him about any thing, leave alone clearing out the hoard. he is filled with bitterness about his past, and lashes out in anger against us, his sisters, who live with him..
all our prayers seem to be unanswered and he remains unchanged. He tells us we are “Jesus freaks / nuts” wasting our time on Bible reading, attending church, prayer meetings… he says he can manage his life without these “crutches”, as he sees Christ and His church.
Henry never loses an opportunity to tell us we are “brainless women, having no common sense”. And if we ever say something back , then he calls us “fake Christians” because we offended &hurt him!
how do you help such a person who refuses all help / good counsel and has a smart, rational answer for everything?!
sister elizabeth Mumbai India
I’m so sorry Elizabeth, that sounds like a very tough situation. I will certainly keep you all in my prayers. May God bless you and your family.
I’m stopping by from Wholehearted Wednesdays. I was intrigued by your title and wondered how you would connect the three. You did it beautifully! Thank you for encouraging us to get rid of the junk in our hearts, yet reminding us that we’re not to do it alone. Jesus, our Savior, is praying for us, helping us along the way! 🙂
Aw, thank you Jen. Without Jesus I would still be a horrible hoarder of heart junk. So glad you stopped and took the time to say hello. Many blessings!