The practice of Simplicity is to uncomplicate and untangle my life inwardly and outwardly, so I can focus on what really matters; keeping first things first – Jesus and His Kingdom.
"A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree." Proverbs 11:28
"No worker can serve two bosses: He’ll either hate the first and love the second or adore the first and despise the second. You can’t serve both God and the Bank." Luke 16:13
Ways to Practice
- Ask God to show you attitudes, activities and/or possessions that complicate life and take you away from God. Eliminate activities, commitments, objects, habits that distract you from the seeking God first. Ask God to show you where to begin.
- Sell/give away some of your “stuff”. Receive what you keep as a gift from God, that is available to others.
- Purchase for usefulness, not status.
- Choose to enjoy entertainment that is free and readily available (the park, game nights, sunsets, bonfires, etc.) Check out if the library has a book before purchasing it. Choose to enjoy simple pleasures and foods.
What results might we expect?
- Space for loving and serving God
- Increased focus and clarity about life, others, God, yourself, the world.
- Joy at God’s regular provision for our needs.
- Freedom from anxiety
“…simplicity is an inward reality that results in and outward life style. Both the inward and the outward aspects of simplicity are essential. We deceive ourselves if we believe we can possess the inward reality without its having a profound effect on how we live. To attempt to arrange an outward lifestyle of simplicity without the inward reality leads to deadly legalism.” Richard Foster
For more exploration of simplicity:
https://www.leadershiptransformations.org/documents/Silencio.January.2015.Simplicity.pdf