Do you willingly give things up? Are you willing to lose everything you have? Will you give it all away? Will you give up control of it all? Have you considered it is not really yours? Will you give them up to gain something far more valuable? Do you know you have this choice?
In our consumerism culture, we put a high value on possessions. Whether we openly admit it or not, many of us have the attitude that the one who dies with the most toys wins. Unfortunately (or fortunately), this attitude could not be further from the truth.
The Apostle Paul states that he regards everything lost for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ. Before we start selling everything we have, Paul does not say he actually gave them up. No, he considered them lost to him. In other words, he knows they all belong to God. He used possessions and money to spread the gospel of Jesus.
When we come to the realization that we own nothing but are stewards of what God has blessed us with, it frees us from consumerism. We no longer feel the need to compete with others. Our attitude becomes more like Paul’s. We seek opportunities to use what God has blessed us with to spread the gospel.
Why would we do this? To know Christ more. In some respects, it is like the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first. As we grow closer to Christ, we loosen our grip on possessions. As we loosen our grip on possessions, we learn to trust Christ more. When we reach the level of trust Paul had, we experience the freedom Paul spoke of to the church in Galatia in Galatians 5:1.
I pray we all seek to grow closer to Jesus. I pray we seek to be like Paul. I pray each one of us will loosen our grip on our possessions, trust God with all things, and experience true freedom. Grow closer to Jesus. Loosen your grip on possessions. Trust God. Experience true freedom.
Philippians 3:7-8a Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Marty Pressey 