Possessions

 Luke 12:15 ESV

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 


Someone famously asked the richest man of his day how much money is enough. He infamously replied, 'just a little bit more'. In other words, money and possessions will never be enough.

In light of that famous quote, covetousness is a foolish thing. Why desire what others have when it will never satisfy? Stuff will never fulfil us like God can.

C.S. Lewis famously said that desires are meant to be met: hunger with food, thirst with water etc. He went on to say that if we have a desire this world can't fulfil, we can reckon that we were made for another world. Covetousness for stuff we have no right to is wrong; desire for eternity with God through Jesus's sacrifice is right.

We might have no divine right for eternity with God. Nonetheless, Jesus has earned it for us by his death and resurrection. We can enter in to all he has won for us; we just need to get our priorities right.

'God, please forgive any covetousness we may have. May we desire you above all, not stuff that is passing away anyway. For the honour of Christ we pray, amen'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Listen!

  Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered. Jeremiah 35:17 ESV In the context, the Rechabites were better at keeping their family traditions than the Jews were at obeying the word of the Lord. God respected the Rechabites nomadic teetotalism. His temper was frayed with His people as a whole however. We don't have to be nomadic. Yet we should remember that this world is not our home, we're just passing through. We shouldn't get too comfortable. We don't have to be teetotal. Yet we must never get drunk on alcohol. We should be sober minded as we consider the eternity to come. Thankfully, salvation is available to us in Christ crucified. Yet we must listen to the way of salvation. If we close our ears to calls to ...
Read more

Listen

  Psalm 143:8 ESV Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. What’s the first thing we do when we wake up? Is it to scroll our phones and check our notifications? Or is it to check in with God through His word, without technological distractions? If we trust in the Lord, we ought to long to hear from Him first thing in the morning. We need daily reminders of His unfailing love. His mercies are new every morning, thankfully. Every day, we need God to direct us. We might be in a groove (or a rut!) of regular practices, yet we should be open to being flexible to whatever life throws at us and what God has for us. He can help us deal with anything that seems to attack us. Morning by morning, we should lift our souls to the Lord. We are to wait in expectancy up Him. He will never fail us. ‘Dear Lord, we come to You this morning expectant of Your goodness to us afresh this day. Please ...
Read more

Listen!

  James 1:19 NLT Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.   In Christ, we’re all one big spiritual family. We’re all siblings, adopted by our Father God through faith in Jesus. We need to understand how we ought to function as God’s family.   Firstly, we must be quick to listen. A famous quote says that we’ve got twice as many ears as mouths, so we should listen twice as much as we speak! Most of us find it hard to listen, and if we do, we listen to respond, rather than listen to understand and appreciate where the other person’s coming from.   Secondly, we should be slow to speak. Lots of us are opinionated and like to be heard. Yet James is urging us to think twice before opening our mouths: is it necessary?   Finally, we’re to be slow to get angry. Lots of things can irritate and annoy us. We should pause before venting, maybe we just need to be philosophical about ...
Read more