Many life lessons are overlooked because we really are not aware of what is actually taking place. We do not even realize at the time of a transition, that many of the surroundings and beings around us have more of a part to play then we think. It’s just like some phrases I’ve always heard in my life.
Some of them sound like “you don’t appreciate someone until they’re gone and it’s too late” or “i never would have thought this would have caused all this trouble”
or even “i wish i could go back and do that all over again”. The thing is, it is so easy to get comfortable with your surroundings, and just live with it.
We have people out there “going green” and trying to improve the overall environment as a whole, and I truly admire those efforts. They won’t settle for people junking up the earth, and make a conscious effort by their every day actions to show they want a better and healthier world around them to live in.
If we take a moment to look around in our own individual environments, it would not take very long to see things that are junk, that do nothing but to bring suffering to our lives.
It might be something you are dealing with at home, at work, or just going down the road. It might be addictions, attitudes, personality traits, anything that would lead you to be less then what you are capable of being. It might something part of your every day routine, or something secret that you battle with that no one knows about it. It might be family, friends, acquaintances, or even your own defined adversaries that lead you to have a great number of different kinds of influences that would hinder you.
The thing is, we live in a world where we serve a God that sees everything we do, everything we speak, and everything we think. He knows your vices, and the buttons that could be pushed to tempt you to fall out of the will of him. I want to use some scriptures to try and bring out a central point: We need to be aware of our environments and clean up all the junk that would be polluting our own lives.
John.15
[1] I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
[2] Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
[3] Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
[4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
[5] I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
[6] If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
[7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
[8] Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
[9] As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
[10] If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
[11] These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
[12] This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
[13] Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[14] Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
[15] Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
[16] Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
[17] These things I command you, that ye love one another.
[18] If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
[19] If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
[20] Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
[21] But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
[22] If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
[23] He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
[24] If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
[25] But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
[26] But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
[27] And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Don’t let all the junk around you corrupt your life from bearing the good fruit. Even if you literally have to get rid of things, get rid of habits, lose some friends that are bad influences, or anything that would hinder you from being as fruitful as you can possibly be, is well worth it. Cleansing your life from the things that would hinder you only brings you closer to God, which only unlocks even more blessings coming your way. I hope this speaks to you like it did to me.
