Cleaning Up, My Home

These days, The Lord has been calling me to clean up my home, my thought life and my financial life.

It took years for me to realize how these are all connected but one day in prayer I heard The Lord say "disobedience is poverty" and revelation came. 

My Home

I have been living in a one room guest house for almost 2 years now. I live behind the main home on the property, completely surrounded by the natural and inner city elements. I only have one sink, in the bathroom. Although I have a refrigerator and a microwave, I do not have a kitchen.

When I first moved here, I had been homeless. I was working, and sleeping on my friends couches for a year until I had paid off enough debt (I had been evicted from the previous apartment) to move into this place. 

It reminded me of the studio apartment

I had lived in Chicago, 8 years prior after finishing my undergraduate education and I knew it meant that I was at least back at ground zero. 

I thought I would be here for three months and then move to a better place.

6 months went by and I felt myself relax from moving a total of seven times in the previous year. I was tired of moving and my things remained in boxes.

One year went by and my parents came to visit. They felt bad for me not having a table or a chair and we went to Walmart to get a small tray table and folding chair. My things were still in boxes.

18 months went by and I get tired of the boxes. I am frustrated that I have not moved somewhere better. I am praying that The Lord move me to a better place. He speaks to me to organize the space I am in. I make my first trip to the Container Store and discover lots of handy things to take my clothes, shoes, jewelry and make up out of boxes. It feels good to trust the space. To see my things out right in front of me again. And to throw away some boxes.

Here we are two years later, and I have stopped praying about moving. In the midst of helping an elderly friend dust her apartment after a month of sickness, The Lord gives me a vision for a piece of furniture I need for my place. The next day I see the exact piece He has shown me on sale at a second hand furniture shop and I buy it.  I was able to pull my books out of boxes and have a place to put other things. I was also able to fold away the ironing board and not use it as a table any more. I actually created more space by organizing! 

I am now down to the last three boxes. They are filled with papers to sort through and decide whether to shred or to keep for now. 

I see how I have been disobedient by not stewarding my home well and how my thought life and my financial life have also been affected. 

Scripture for Meditation:

Ephesians 2:22 (NKJV) 

"in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."