Over the last few months I have been surprised to see what a slave I was and still am to religion. With every day that passes God pulls me deeper and deeper into a loving relationship with Him and as I learn more and more about His love He reveals areas of my life where I am still a slave to religion. The latest area of broken shackles is around possessiveness.
Over my life God has occasionally asked me to give things up, like money, time, video games, or relationships. Pre-World Race I hated giving things up because I saw it as a religious duty. I used to complain saying, “Why was God always asking me to give up things I enjoyed? Didn’t he want me to be happy?” I saw giving up possessions as something I had to do because God said so and because it made me a “good” Christian. I felt more like a religious slave serving a harsh and unloving Master, instead of a son who is deeply loved by his Heavenly Father.
But I had it all wrong. God wasn’t asking me to give up these ‘things’ because He wanted me to be miserable, He was asking me to give them up because I was miserable. I had begun to possess these ‘things’ in my heart. It wasn’t the fact that I had money that was making me miserable, it was the fact that in my heart I loved and served money more than God. I had moved God from the center of my love and replaced Him with money. It is impossible for me to grow closer to God when I am striving to grow closer to money that I am my Heavenly Father. I was possessing money.
The solution…God’s love. It is the deep desire of God to want a relationship with us. Fortunately for me He knows the desires of my heart better than I do, so when He asks me to give something up it isn’t because He wants me to give up all my money and live in a cardboard box; it is because He wants to draw me deeper into relationship with Him and His love, not because He is a harsh Master but because He is my Heavenly Father and He wants a relationship with me, His son.
So in the future, when God asks me to give something up, I will know that one of the reasons He wants me to give it up is because He wants to draw me closer to Him by making sure He is at the center of my love. I am called to only possess Him in my heart and nothing else. This does’t mean we can’t enjoy what life has to offer or the people He has placed in our life. God has created many things for us to enjoy, and it is good that we do. But above all, He desires our hearts and a relationship with His children.
So while it may be hard to give something up, there is joy in the exercise because God is pulling me deeper into a grace filled, loving, Father Son relationship. What more do I really need…Nothing!
