The Best Way to Make the Most of Simplify Your Life Week
The first week in August is Simplify Your Life Week.
Simplify Your Life Week is observed during [the first week of] August each year. This holiday encourages those who need to refocus their lives and declutter – that doesn’t just mean objects. The idea is to eliminate anything that causes stress or anxiety. Most of us have a tendency to clutter up our lives, both physically and psychologically.
National Day Calendar
Eliminate anything that causes stress and anxiety! Doesn’t that sound wonderful? In fact, you could make a case that, as Rev would say, it sounds downright Biblical.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7
Are you an emotional hoarder? Do you have internal junk in your life that you need to eliminate? Do you have attitudes that need to go so you can enjoy the peace and joy you want?
I know I’m taking a closer look at my attitudes to see if there are any I need to toss.
Because Simplify Your Life Week might just be the perfect time for us to toss the attitudes that are weighing our hearts down and prayerfully ask God to replace them with things that give us peace and joy!
The Best Way to Make the Most of Simplify Your Life Week
Below you will find some negative attitudes that repeatedly try to creep into my life . . . things I want to toss for good.
But first, I want to ask God to help me identify all the attitudes He wants me to get rid of so I might better trust His will and follow His plans. I would love for you to pray with me and then maybe you’d like to join me and simplify your life by tossing a few of these things as well.
Father, I want to honor You with all I think, do, and say. I want to trust and obey Your will for me. Lord, I know that too often my bad attitude can get in the way of living the life You want for me. Please help me to honestly identify the attitudes that are preventing me from loving You and others the way you want. Please fill me with Your Spirit to lead me to the truth and give me the courage to step out in faith and reject any attitude that keeps me outside of Your will. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Pride
Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 11:2, Proverbs 13:!0, Proverbs 16:18
Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.
Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.
The pride that needs to go is not feeling good about our accomplishments . . . it is an attitude of conceit and a sense of superiority that looks down on others.
Jesus added pride to a list of things He called an evil that comes out of a person’s heart. (Mark 7:20–23)
So, let’s toss the pride that keeps us from loving God and loving others well. Pride that hurts our relationships.
Because getting rid of pride helps us stop comparing ourselves to others but looks at who we are as children of God. It is accepting that we fall short of God’s perfect will and need His forgiveness, help, and direction.
Guilt and Shame
If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:11–12, Romans 8:1
For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
The Father does not want His children to live with ongoing feelings of guilt and shame. If you and I continue to feel guilt over a confessed sin that is not coming from God. It is coming from the enemy of our souls. The one who tempts us to sin and then forever reminds us of our failures and wants us to believe that living out the consequences means we haven’t been forgiven.
But he is a liar! God calls you and me forgiven.
When Paul wrote, “there is no condemnation” he was telling us that through our faith in Jesus’ and His loving sacrifice we are declared “NOT GUILTY.”
And that is the freedom the Lord wants for us. So, you and I can trust that through repentance and surrendered faith . . . it’s time to toss our feelings of guilt.
Anger
People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.
Proverbs 14:29, Ephesians 4:31–32
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Anger in itself is not wrong as it is an appropriate attitude toward sin and injustice. I’ll admit that I have things that can easily push my hot buttons and elicit a less than “righteous” response because of my own poor attitudes.
That makes this the perfect week to prayerfully ask God to help me know when anger is appropriate and guide me as to the way He wants me to act on it. This is the perfect time to ask for God’s help to get rid of angry outbursts and practice using my words with patience and respect to communicate my feelings in a god-pleasing way.
Whew, this is a challenge that will need God to help me remember, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)
Fear
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears.You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.”
1 Timothy 1:7, Psalm 34:4, Romans 8:15
I spent too many years of my life living afraid. So, whenever I’m doing an attitude checkup, I always examine my feelings of fear.
I love Paul’s words in Romans 8 reminding us that our perfect loving Heavenly Father does not want us to suffer from fear! So much that He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us and told us 366 times in His Word not to be afraid.
The good news is that we don’t have to toss our fear and live with strength on our own. We can surrender our fears to God in prayer and trust Him to give us everything we need to live with bold faith. We can proclaim with David, “I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4
Comparisons
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
Romans 12:2, Matthew 7:1–2, Galatians 6:4–5
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the complete freedom to be the beautiful person God created you to be . . . without comparing yourself to anyone.
Advertisers want us to compare ourselves to airbrushed photos of models . . . to convince us to buy product X, Y, or Z. Friends expect us to dress and act in peer-approved styles and behaviors to conform and be part of their group. Leaders feed us well-planned talking points to conform us into like-minded thinkers. I probably could go on and on.
But God calls each of us uniquely and wonderfully complex (Psalm 139:14). Created with specific gifts and abilities (Romans 12:6), for this time and place (Esther 4:14), to accomplish good works He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10). Why in the world would we want to settle for being like someone else.
This quote really grabbed my heart…
“Comparison is not only the thief of joy, it is is a direct offense to our Creator God. When we try and measure ourselves next to the woman beside us, we are essentially declaring that God got something wrong in His unique design of our personal characteristics.“
Lauren Pinkston at Healthy Christian Home by Mary
God created you for your life and He created me for mine. We were each uniquely made to live for His glory through the highs, lows, and in-betweens that He knew we would face through all the days He has planned for us. (Psalm 139:16)
So, I’m making every effort to toss the temptation to compare who I am, what I can do, what I have, or anything else to someone else.
Are you ready to join me?
Because Jesus said there are just a few specific things we need to live the life He wants for us.
One…
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
Mark 12:29–31
And Two…
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:33
That’s my list of things to eliminate during Simplify Your Life Week. What would be on your list?
I had no idea that the first week in August calls us to simplify our lives, Deb. Yes, it’s such a great notion to clear out our emotional closets, tossing aside all thoughts that keep us from a closer walk with Jesus. I’m joining you!
Blessings!
I know it’s where I need to start, Martha! It’s the emotional junk that always clutters my life first. Blessings to you!
Thank you Deb for these inspiring topics while injecting the Word of God with each point made. It motivates me to become stronger in my faith with God.
I appreciate you and continue this wonderful and inspirational work that you are doing. God bless you.
Thank you, Martha! I sure do appreciate your kind encouragement. God bless you, my friend!
Thankyou for sharing this.
As 2020 continues to unravel and unload the unpleasant, unwanted circumstances, it gets harder day by day to or give up.
Needed the intentional Truth today.
Hello Deb,
Your article on ‘decluttering your life’ is so inspiring and very much needed! Yes, we all get bogged down in our attitudes and we need to release them, for us to walk free in our body and soul. Only then are we lighter in ourselves to be able to take up our cross daily and follow Him.
The ‘clutter’ keeps us earth bound until it is released.
Thank you for sharing with us and for reminding me that we are all created by God, ‘unique’ in our own right and called by Him to be ‘holy’, abandoning ourselves to His ways. This is what it truly means ‘to be set free’!!!!
Blessings always,
Angela – Dublin Ireland
Hi, Angela! Thank you for visiting. I’ve never been to Ireland. I love the way you talk about “clutter” keeping us from enjoying the freedom God wants for us. His way is so much better. Thank you for your kind encouragement. God bless you!
Oh, Deb, this is so good. I’ve claimed August as a month to ‘reclaim’ so Simplify Your Life Week falls right into that. Thanks so much for sharing these areas that we will do well to clean out.
Bless you, my friend.
Thank you so much, sweet friend! I love your word “reclaim.” What a wonderful thought. With God’s help, we are reclaimed and can reclaim His plans and purposes for us. Blessings and hugs!