It’s time to Shift and Shed
It’s that time of year again when the leaves are about to change colors and eventually fall. Trees lose their leaves. It’s winter time. It’s what they do. We know that things don’t stay this way. It’s a cycle that comes around once a year. Like these trees, we must often examine our lives according to the season that we’re in so that we too can shed some things, in order to come back better.
It’s time to shed some things.
You must shed the old if you want to grow the new. Period. It’s the way growth works. You’ll no longer fit into the old skin or the old mold when you begin to grow. You must break out of it. Like a snake, you’ll need to shed the old skin in order to make room for new growth. Like a deer that sheds its antlers every year only to come back stronger and more use useful. Like a bush or tree that’s cut back. Not only does it promote new growth but it cuts off anything that’s dead or doesn’t belong. We must shift and shed what no longer fits or belongs in order to make room for new growth. It’s time for an upsize.
You simply can’t grow if you only and always do the same ole’. Some habits help, but some hinder. It’s time to change it up! Even when you workout, you will hit a plateau if you keep doing the same routine with the same weight. Life is no different.
When you begin to shed and cut back, things might get and look a little ugly for a while. But, it’s sure to promote new growth and you’ll soon blossom again.
It’s time to shift your thoughts and shed some old mindsets and beliefs. Shed what no longer serves you. Shed what is tied to you if it’s weighing you down, or either learn how to manage it better. If it doesn’t need shedding, then it’s likely something else needs to be cut back or shed somewhere else so that you can do this thing well. If it’s dead weight, then it no longer brings or promotes life.
Shed some ties so that you can accept what does belong. It’s impossible to accept new if you have no room for it. Break up with old mindsets that keep you in old unproductive and vicious cycles. Shift what’s out of order, in order to bring those things that do matter back to order and where they belong. Only you can do this. But you can’t really shift the right way until you shed, or else your just moving things around. Make room for new in order to grow! If a ship is sinking, you must do more than shift things around, you must throw some things overboard. You start figuring out real quick what’s important and what’s not; what you can and can’t live without! If it’s getting on the inside of you, it’ll drown you. It’s not what’s around that drowns, it’s what’s within.
New growth is coming in when you shed! Don’t leave the space empty. Fill it up with your new mindsets; your new beliefs. Your new found hope, and the people and things that do serve you so that you can serve well. That’s how you guild and rebuild. You can’t serve others if you’re always giving time and energy to only one thing. What has your time and energy has you!
It’s all about give and take. It’s not all about being served but serving too. If something sucks the life out of you, then you can’t serve well. If something is keeping you small, it’s no longer serving you. If something is bringing you down to that point, it’s time to reconsider. Get rid of the old mindset that’s keeping you from doing the thing with joy that is in front of you. You can’t escape all things but you can reconsider how and why you do it.
Maybe the relationship is hindered or stifled by something else that shouldn’t have priority over it. So watch that you don’t cut off the very thing that just needs attention and in turn keep the thing that’s keeping you from the greater. Ask for wisdom.
You must see things from a different point of view in order to get rid of what doesn’t belong. If it don’t fit no more, it don’t belong. It’s time for a new wardrobe and we’re going up in size! We’re always meant to go up! It’s an upsize in the right direction to give you room for new growth! I’m not talking about getting more more more! No! Life isn’t all about stuff but growing inwardly, upwardly and spiritually. We make room for what really matters and maybe that’s simplifying in order to grow in the areas that we need to. Isn’t that what we were created for, growth? Growing closer to God! Every thing born is created to grow and mature. We were never meant to stay the same - Growing as we’re going.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16
It’s all about shedding and shifting as we’re changing. Life’s always changing and we must change with it or get left behind. Life’s a a juggling act and it’s a balance of learning when to hang on and when to let go! The Word of God never changes but we are created for growth!
Life is all about seasons, cycles and growth. When we feel dormant, maybe it’s that God is trying to cut back areas of our life that no longer belong. Branches that aren’t fruitful are cut off, branches that do are cut back. If we aren’t producing fruit then we aren’t growing and unless we’re abiding in Christ then we’re not producing the right kind of fruit. Make sure you’re growing and going in the right direction.
Take time to cut back so that you can take time for rest and new growth promotion. We’re always to come back better. Without growth we’re stunted and without change, we remain the same. We’re not meant to be stagnant but to flow and move in the right direction!
It’s time to break out of your shell.
It’s true: Old ways won’t open new doors! Old mindsets won’t produce new growth, and old patterns won’t present new doors. Unless we take opportunity, walk through new doors and try new things, we remain the same. We must recognize these patterns in order to change them. It’s time to shed the old skin so we can fit into our new.
Maybe God’s trying to do a new work and good work in you, but are you participating? As long as we are alive, He is perfecting us if we are proactive and willing to work with Him. We must work with God and seek Him in all of these areas in order to grow. Is there something that is holding you back and hindering you from growth? It’s not always about the new but sometimes growing on something we have already established. What’s been built must be maintained. If you don’t take care of a house it will eventually fall in. We are to constantly make things better than we found them. Isn’t that what God is doing in us?
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6
Find out where the hold back is coming from and cut off the lie, or be it whatever it is that’s hindering you from promotion. It’s time to promote new growth and have a changed mind. Trees get diseases that hinder growth. If some area is sick or diseased in your life, then seek a solution and healing for that area. If we don’t, that very thing will begin to creep and spread into other areas of our life that might be healthy. Get to the source and quickly! Seek the Healer, it’s in Him that we find the solution. Don’t be overtaken by sin. What we feed grows but we ignore can too. It’s time to face it head on in order to change it! Take inventory of your life and what you are bearing and it’s there that you can begin.
Here’s the fruits of the Spirit that grow from abiding in Him:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
If you’re walking opposite of any of these or contrary to, it’s a good indication of where to begin to cut off rather than cut back.
He tells us that the branch can’t bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine and so the same we can’t produce Godly fruits in our lives without Him. So wherever you feel you’re struggling in an area to produce a particular fruit, that’s a good place to start and identify where you need to shed and promote new growth. For instance if you’re not producing peace or abiding in peace, then find out why! What’s stealing your peace. What’s destroying your joy and so on……Get to the root of the matter because wherever the root is, we find growth.
Whatever the root is made of, that’s what’s gonna grow too and produce fruit…..You can’t wish to have something that the root won’t produce. If we don’t like it, we must dig it up by the root. In order to bear new fruit, we must plant new seeds. We just made room for new growth. That is how we grow my friend! We must first shed light on the lie and pluck it up by the root in order to promote new growth and walk in truth! Amen.
