Our “Stuff”

My wife and I are getting some much-needed improvements done to our home. She’s lived here for four decades (two with me) and during that time lots of “things” have accumulated. I’m sure that’s the case with most Baby Boomers but when I realize just how much “stuff” we have I’m embarrassed because the vast majority of it consists of furniture, knickknacks, decorations, etc. that don’t have any lasting value. Yet we’ve hung on to them for years.

Christians must guard their hearts from elevating anything or anybody above Jesus Christ. It takes spiritual effort and discipline. We all know “we can’t take it with us” so why do we act like we can?

A.W. Tozer wrote, “There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets ‘things’ with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns ‘my’ and ‘mine’ look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

Not long ago in one of my blogs I brought up the story of the rich young man who asked Jesus, “What must I do to gain eternal life?“ (Matthew 19:16). He then bragged about how religious and law-abiding he was, thinking that would impress Christ. But when our Lord told him to give all his money and “stuff” to the poor, he turned and “went away sorrowful, for he was very wealthy“ (19:22). Evidently, he found salvation too expensive.

This doesn’t mean Christians are to live like beggars. What our Savior demands of His disciples is that we be willing to surrender whatever we treasure more than Him. He taught, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits his soul?“ (Luke 9:23-25).

That’s not a passage preached in most modern-day church pulpits with regularity. Folks don’t really want to hear what Christ taught about being poor or enduring hardships. Calvin wrote, “Those whom the Lord has chosen and honored with His intercourse must prepare for a hard, laborious, troubled life, a life full of many and various kinds of evils; it being the will of our heavenly Father to exercise His people in this way while putting them to the proof.”

Most of us don’t like tests.

Nothing’s more uncomfortable and downright disturbing than reading about God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son in Genesis 22. Understand that his and Sarah’s son Isaac was the miracle child God had promised they’d have. It’s not hard to imagine that the apprehension Abraham suffered on the eve of the event was matched only by the angst Jesus’ endured in Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. God has never asked for more than He did of Abraham.

Abraham’s faith is legendary. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He’d received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his son. God had told him, ‘Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,’ and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense, he received him back from there“ (Hebrews 11:17-19). An unbeliever would conclude that God’s a cruel trickster who can’t be trusted. Nothing’s further from the truth.

Tozer wrote, “We’re often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.”

Brennan Manning opined, “The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials. Through the indescribable anguish on Mount Moriah with his son Isaac, Abraham learned that the God who’d called him to hope against hope was eminently reliable and that the only thing expected from him was unconditional trust.”

While it’s doubtful God will test any of us to the extent He did with Abraham, we must do all we can to nurture our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father. First, we must rid ourselves of all defenses and excuses. Tozer explained, “Whoever defends themself will have themself for their own defense, and they’ll have no other; but let them come defenseless before the Lord and they’ll have for their defender no less than God Himself.” “Christ is the one who died (and more than that, He was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us“ (Romans 8:34).

Secondly, Christians should never underestimate the necessity of placing God above all human beings, creatures and material things in their life. This can be extremely hard to do and impossible without the assistance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Tozer commented, “The ancient curse of Eden will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us won’t lie down and die obedient to our command.”

We must pray daily, asking God for the power to expel the accumulated “stuff” from our heart and replace it all with His glorious presence. Yes, it might require specifically identifying things and people we’ve made more important than Him. But by doing so you’ll come to realize the old saying, “Give up everything you have for what you could never buy“, is absolutely true.