It
is hard to describe what it feels like to see all your things sprawled
out on your drive way.
Now our
house is empty. The home I have spent the last three years perfecting
to my families taste and needs has been dismantled, from the crock pot
in my kitchen to the squirrel bowl in the entry way. Gone.
When
the ruler asked Jesus what he had to do to be saved, Christ replied
he needed to sell all his possessions. Luke 12
Jesus
constantly reminds us that we cannot love money or possessions and Him
at the same time. Matthew 6:24
I
have always glanced over these verses with a nod, because well, I don't consider myself a materialistic person, especially for an American. However, Jesus isn't grading on a curb here. There is no scale: If you love things,
you can't love God.
Sometimes
I think that we achieve 'Holiness' THEN God asks big things
of us. I have come to realize that he calls us to things specifically TO make us
more like Him. God asked me and Jesse to GO. Wrapped inside that
obedience is God embracing us unto himself. Wooing us to be more
entwined and secure in Him.
What
I didn't anticipate is the joy this surrender would bring.
I didn't
realize that a crock pot owned a tiny place in my heart that God couldn't enter. Until God asked me to chuck it for His glory. And I
obeyed. Now God owns that part of my heart, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom, hope and peace.
I'll
take that over a ceramic squirrel bowl any day.
I
cannot communicated this enough. God wants us. He is a jealous
lover. He wants every possession surrendered,
He wants any false sense of
security uprooted. That He may heal and fill our hearts.
Post note: However
I caution you. God tells Saul directly through Samuel "the
LORD delight in obedience, not sacrifice”. Sacrificing blindly is a fools religion.
Obedience however requires listening first. It requires an intimate
relationship with it's maker. God may not be calling you to sell
everything you own, He is asking for what only You can give him, a
relationship unto obedience.
“I desire steadfast love, not
sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings”
Hosea 6:6
A picture of False Security
