Stuff
1John 2:15-17 Do not love 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, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
We all want, and try real hard to get ‘stuff’. Our environment especially here in America (the land of the plenty), saturates our minds with the pursuit of our wants; I did not say needs. This pursuit has crept into the pulpits and the prosperity preaching of today. But even outside faith and religion, we must realize all our pursuits are vain, for we cannot take any of them with us. God wants us to have joy in life here, but that He brings is not found in idealistic toil to gain a material possessions. The joy that He brings is an inner joy, that costs nothing, that no-one can steal or destroy, and will last an eternity.
I fell into the trap of material possessions, and idealistic pursuit of them. Once Christ entered in and changed me from the inside out, I realized how much value I had placed on the stuff. John is showing us here that all of these pursuits, simply draw us away from God. We invest all our time, all our resources into stuff that we will remain here when our time is gone. When we stand before God, and He asks us about how we invested our time on earth, what will our reply be? Place your heart, your joy, your eternal treasures in the only secure place in existence – Christ.
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