John 2:15-17 says, " Love not the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also it's lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
If we fall in love with the things around us, we can not follow after the plan that He has devised for each and everyone of us. Many times we will say, " I need this!"..."I can't go without it"..."I can't live without it." Need is a very strong word. Especially over the last couple of years, I have found that I don't need near as much in life as I may have thought that I did, and to expound on this...I don't want as much in life either. In reality, too often the more that we possess in life the more our attention is pulled away from our purpose in life. Many never even think about being born into this world for the divine use of an almighty God. These wonderful possessions that we have now will only become our junk one day. As a matter of fact the Word tells us not to lay up our treasure here on earth because moths & rust will destroy it, or thieves will steal it. If we do not listen & heed God when He tells us these things from the Word, then He will teach us a life lesson to demonstrate it. I remember one time where there was this particular lady who liked this beautiful new skirt that I was wearing so much that she just had to have one for herself, and she wanted to know where I had bought my skirt at. Now, I did something that I can never really remember ever doing before. I wouldn't tell her! Simply because I had been hurt by this woman who had done something really wrong to me. Now, anyone who knows me well enough will tell you that I'm all about getting a good deal when I shop & helping others to get a good deal also. I always share my info, but this one particular time, I would not. My state of heart was wrong! I wasn't going to help this woman to get the great skirt that I had found, and for the awesome price I found it at! No way! The funny thing is that I rarely even had to see her, and may have never had to see her wear the skirt, but I still didn't want to be a help to her. I had simply just been offended by her, and was not going to help her out; after all it was the most awesome skirt, and I had found it. I want you to know that after I saw her, I washed that skirt & hung it up. I had hung it amongst a lot of other clothes, and when I pulled that skirt out to where it again, ants had eaten the skirt up. The whole skirt was full of holes! It was in the very middle of all a lot of clothes, yet it was the only one with a single hole in it. No ants had ruined any other article of clothing. God was teaching me one of life's lessons! He showed me that I had loved that skirt, but not my enemy; not enough to even tell them where to get a gorgeous skirt at a great savings. I had shown love to a possession, but not to a human being! I now had a beautiful skirt full of holes and ready to be taken out with the trash! I know without a doubt that God was giving me the precious attitude adjustment that I so desperately needed. You see, it's not wrong at all to have nice things; the Bible actually tells us in Proverbs 15:6 that much wealth is in the house of the righteous. It is our wrong attitude towards things that can harm us; the love & great desire of things which is greed and covetousness. What you possess does not denote who you are as a person. Possessions do not validate who you are. If we have a wrong mindset towards things, the way that we view life in general will be distorted; we will begin to believe that what we possess characterizes us. Some of the most incredibly godly... not religious, but godly people that I know are very very poor, however, some are very very wealthy, also. What you possess as a person does not characterize your life. Truly living life as God has planned out for you, cannot be measured by what you possess. When we have a right attitude towards things, we have a right attitude towards God. A scripture that God has used to speak to me is found in Luke 12:15. (NAS) It says, "Beware, and be on guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." I am very grateful for all of the things that God has given to me, however, I do not have to have those things; I need the Holy Ghost & His presence in my life...This I cannot do without. I need Him. We need Him. The Lord is the only source of complete satisfaction and success in our lives. Without a real relationship with Him, we could still live very comfortably in this life & be exceedingly successful according to this world's view's, yet never fulfill the very thing we were spoken into existence to do. How horrible that would be to stand before God & not have completed the very purpose in which we were created for. Let's make sure that nothing gets in our way & robs us from fully carrying out what He has planned for us. God help us today to rid ourselves of every wrong attitude or desire in Jesus' name. Amen! I am thankful to have the greatest treasure in my life, which is salvation through Jesus Christ!
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