3:350 – You Don’t Need It

#faithbites #faithjourney need

Setting

Yesterday I found out that in less than 36 hours, they were going to tear apart our kitchen, which meant that I had to empty all the cabinets and empty the entire kitchen. If you’ve never done that, OH MY GOODNESS, is not fun. There was so much junk that I couldn’t believe it. We are going to need less than half of the cabinet space we had before.

At first, I had a hard time throwing stuff away. I thought I might need something somewhere down the line. At this point, I figured if I haven’t needed it, I won’t need it. If I truly need it, I can get something similar. But it was hard and cluttered up my kitchen.

Besides stuff in our kitchen how many of us have stuff in our life that clutters us and takes us away from God? I know I do. We need to focus on God. Think about the stuff you do in your life. If it doesn’t help you get closer to God, maybe you need to get rid of it and try something else.

Can we change how we spend our time so that we spend more of it on activities that glorify God and less on those that take us away from him?

Scripture

• Ecclesiastes 3:6 – A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
• Philippians 4:19 – And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• Mark 4:19 – But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Reflection

This one is simple: get rid of it. In most cases, you really don’t need it. I know this is hard. We’ve spent money on stuff or spent time on our activities. But is it really giving you hope and joy in Christ or are you filling your God-hole with things that aren’t Godly?

For me, it’s just realizing that it isn’t healthy for me. The reason that I do some things isn’t for GOd but ot make me feel good. Feeling good isn’t bad, God wants us to feel good, we just need to make sure we are feeling good through the activities that God wants us to do.

So, not a lot of reflection here, but it’s time to make the tough choices. Toss out the things that aren’t helping you, add things that help you get closer to God, and seek his help in knowing the difference.

Challenge

Throw it away. You probably don’t need it. If you haven’t used something in a year or more, get rid of it. Ask yourself if this helps you be closer to God. If not, you probably don’t need it. Try to fill one garbage bag and see what happens. Slowly but surely, you will feel better 🙂

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you have given us so much and often we lose ourselves in this stuff. Help us to remove the clutter and focus on what we need rather than what we have or what we need. Give us the strength to get rid of the clutter, the junk, and focus on you. It’s hard as we live in a culture of stuff rather than a culture of people and love. We lvoe you Lord and know you want us to focus on sharing your word.

Lord, I pray that you help us with our focus and commitment. In your name, Amen.