Have you noticed when you want to delete unwanted email messages, you can click a button that says “Empty Trash”? Well, we need to do the same thing in our lives. With only a set number of days to live our lives on this earth, we are sent here to do a job assigned to us by The Heavenly Father. I love the way my mentor Les Brown always said this: “There are some people who don’t deserve to sit on the front row of your life. They are better off in the balcony!”
I choose to say to you, please empty the trash from your life. Those people around you who do not mean you any good!
It’s summertime, schools are closed for summer break, and people are taking vacations, traveling here, there and everywhere. As you take time out to restore your soul, take time and look around at the people in your life. You must take time to rest, scripture instructs us to do so in the 23rd Psalm, in verses 1-3, where it says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
Take inventory on the people in your life. Do they mean you any good, or are they holding you back? Are they speaking truth into your life? Do they utilize time by forcing you to make their dreams become a reality? What about your dreams? Don’t put off your own dreams to help someone else, unless the Lord has instructed you to do so.
This column may sound selfish to some of you. It is not intended to be, it is written to remind you to stop expecting different results while still doing the same thing. That’s called insanity! We must make those changes that are necessary in order to cause things to change in our lives, and the first order of business is to empty the trash from our lives — whether it’s your lover, your spouse, your so-called friend. If they don’t mean you any good, get them out of your life.
How do you do that? First, pray without ceasing, and listen only to the voice of the Lord. Don’t allow others to guide you. How can they know what you came to earth to do? That assignment wasn’t given to them. It was given to you, and only you.
You’ve heard me say this in many columns many times. I cannot say that enough because it seems people are so free about giving out unsolicited advice. It’s time for you to clean house!
1st Corinthians 5:13 says, “But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” Isaiah 57:14 says, “And it will be said, ‘Build up, build up, prepare the way, Remove every obstacle out of the way of My people.’” And finally, Job 22:23 says, “If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; if you remove unrighteousness far from your tent.”
In conclusion, just find a way to eliminate the ungodly people, the unsaved, those who will hinder you from your assignment. Sometimes there are things in life that aren’t meant to stay. Although change may not be what we want, change is definitely what we need.
The best way to move forward is to let go of the people in our lives who are holding us back. Notice how some of the most poisonous people come disguised as friends and family. In the end, the only people mad at you for speaking the truth in love and moving on are those who are living a lie.
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, visit her website, www.lyndiagrantshow.com, email lyndiagrant@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on Twitter @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.