"7" & clothes

well.

the INTENTION was to choose 7 pieces of clothing and wear just those this past week.

we failed.

I read a bunch of the "how to do it" from Jen Hatmaker's book "7"

but there is something about a husband finishing school, buried in sorting, keeping things going, getting out of the house so hubby can study, raising & homeschooling 7 kids, excuses as to why the clothes factor for this family of nine never quite got off the ground.

what I realized is  "7" is challenging enough without throwing into the equation... " hey. let's sell everything & be full time missionaries" but on pg 56 she quotes Isaiah 58 & being who I am I went and read the whole passage but this was what stood out to me personally... vs 2-7

For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

It is a fast. 

But it's  not about shouting it from the rooftops. 

If I do this & nothing at all in my heart changes.

there was no point.

and if it makes me feel better to be having so little...

then I have also missed the point.

it's really really not about me. 

not at all. 

It's about bowing down & offering all of it {my stuff} 

before a Holy & Righteous God.

and laying it down as a sacrifice of praise.

in HUMILITY.

in an attitude of prayer & thanksgiving.

and if I can fast like that look at the promise!!!

It is acceptable to the Lord. 

& it has the fragrance of what ministry to others should really look like.

now it's up to us. 

we are trying to lay it all down for God.

with humility. & humble hearts. and a fast... of sorts. 

from our worldly "stuff"

and hanging onto the fact that sharing the Gospel with others as we reduce and prepare our hearts for this journey is just the beginning.