I love reading Sherlock Holmes stories. Below is one of my favourite quotes.
“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it.
Sherlock Holmes, Study in Scarlet
Jesus tells us that in our mind attic we must make room for His Word.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no room in you.” (John 8)
God’s Word contains commands, hopes, promises, and confessions. When we ‘abide’ in this Word we are set free from many things – sin, anxieties, expectations, and biases. The Christian who makes room in their mind, heart, calendar, and wallet is the Christian who is truly free. The Christian who finds no room in their thinking, feeling, daily walk or the use of money or possessions for God’s Word is jumbled and not free.
The next time you are anxious, sinful, or disappointed go into your attic and throw out any unbiblical expectations and replace it with a promise of God.
Denis Oliver