A Spacious Place

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.”

                                                           Job 36:16

We live in a world full of clutter. We fill our homes with stuff; we fill the hours of our day with activity, noise and stress. More always seems to be better and enough is never enough. Our good intentions of “simplifying” are quickly snuffed out by waves of distractions. Distractions that wage a war within us, distractions the world presents as important and cool and necessary for survival. Before we know it, we are stuffed to the max, worn to the bone, and often left wondering if anything we are doing is seriously making an impact on this world.

It truly is a problem that quickly becomes a vicious cycle...Simplify…Need more stuff…Simplify…Shop…Let it Go…Do more things… I see it every single day in my job. I see it in my own life. Some people are called to the mission field in Africa. Others are called to inner city missions for children and women. For the past 10 years I have been called to the mission field of homes and offices. Called to bring peace in the midst of the chaos and clutter! Try to picture if you will the mountains of clutter I have climbed in 10 years. Don’t think about it too long, it’s a scary thought indeed. In fact, my waistline should be a heck of a lot slimmer than it is for all the mountains I’ve climbed! But we won’t talk about THAT clutter today.

Years ago I had a client say to me very honestly…”Kim, the clutter in my head is as bad as the clutter in my home.” Can anyone relate? If we are honest with ourselves, I think we can all relate in some capacity of our busy lives. Sometimes we just need a break in the routine of life to just…breathe. When was the last time you stopped the madness and just inhaled deeply and then exhaled? Go ahead, stop reading and do it right now! Ahhhhhhh...sweet relief, huh? Why is it we fill our plates so full, we stuff ourselves to the point of exploding (heart, house and time), and we think it’s good? I don’t know about y’all, but there are days that I just need some space! Space to think, space to take inventory of all my activities, and space to BREATHE.

The past few weeks I have been on a word search through the Scriptures. Over and over and over again the Lord has led me to a particular verse that says…”He brought me out into a spacious place…”

Fascinated by this phrase, particularly because He keeps speaking it to my heart, over and over again, I did a little research to understand it more clearly. This is what I discovered. The Hebrew word for “spacious place” is merchab, which means a broad or roomy place, an expansive place, or a wide place. One of the verses in
2 Samuel 22:20 states…” He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

Doing a little further investigation, I found these parallel translations of the same phrase.

“He led me to a place of safety…” (New Living Translation)

“He brought me out into a broad place...” (English Standard Version)

“He brought me forth also into a large place…” (King James Version)

And my favorite version by Eugene Peterson’s (The Message) says…

…“you gave me room to breathe.” How often do you give yourself room to breathe? This spacious place is a provision from the Lord. It’s a stopping place for our hearts and our minds to get off the fast track of cluttered living and just rest. He brings us to this place because He delights in us! He truly has our best interest at heart. When we bring our “stuff” out into a WIDE OPEN place, we can inventory what truly is important verses what seems urgent in our own eyes. We are able to breathe deeper and most importantly, we are able to see and hear the One that is calling us to a life of peace in the midst of a busy world.

I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful to the Lord for the spacious places He provides for me. A place to get off the treadmill of life to breathe, a place to say “no” with confidence, remembering that “no” is a complete sentence. And a place to walk around barefoot in the grass with Jesus, just because He delights in me. Today let’s embrace that large place of safety and relief, free from the restrictions and burdens of this world. Your clutter does not define you. But how quickly it does take over our lives when we don’t take time to stop off in the “spacious place” to be refreshed and renewed in the Spirit.

I’m camping out in these verses for the next few weeks until the Lord and I are walking in step with one another in the grass of His priorities for me.

Breathing deep sighs of relief for us all!

In Him,

Kim B.