Are You A Hoarder?

     Have you ever watched one of those hoarding shows? I have watched them many times and always feel bewildered at why someone would choose to live as a prisoner of their home and their belongings. I have had several family members be minor hoarders but nothing that robbed them of their life. These shows show people who have lost all liveability of their home. They can’t walk through rooms or cook a meal. Many times their stuff even takes over their bathroom. Trash usually is mixed in with the items of obsession. Today’s show had a woman who only could enter her home through the back door and then had to squeeze through it. She could not use her refrigerator or her oven. Hoarders always panic when people go through their stuff and they have melt downs when they have to face getting rid of something they might need one day. The sad thing is they can’t enjoy their things because they are piled into rooms they can’t get into; so how important can they be? Their hoarding cost them their freedom to enjoy their life, their home, and their friends. Spouses usually threaten to leave and take their children with them before the hoarder begins to understand there is a problem. They are volunteer slaves to themselves.
     It makes me wonder what we would see if we could visit a person’s heart. Even worse, if Jesus knocked on the door of your heart, is there room for Him to come in? Would He find your heart in order or are you hoarding things. Do you have emotions, hurt, anger hoarded up in corners or closets of your heart? Have you taken all the things you love to the extreme and have them hoarded up in the rooms in your heart? Does Jesus have room to live or maneuver through your heart? Will you melt down if Jesus tells you to get rid of some things in your life?
      He can help you get things cleared out but you have to be willing to part with the things that are robbing you of experiencing true freedom in Christ. Things will never satisfy. Hurt and anger will never give security and comfort. You must keep your heart clean to allow it to be possessed by the One who owns it! Don’t choose things or emotions over having a relationship with Jesus!

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21