If things are what you want, God can give you things,
but if it is God you want
you must be willing to hold “all these things” lightly
and cling tenaciously to God himself.
These things, these blessings we covet,
the gifts, and even the spiritual gifts we desire,
the characteristics and disciplines we crave,
they are residual of His presence.
It is He and He alone that is our chief pursuit.
He and He alone is our first desire.
That is why Paul could say…
“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
God’s presence is worth far more than all His gifts.
God’s presence is worth far more than any blessing.
But we must know this as the blessings come.
We must keep this idea in mind when prosperity finds us.
We must be very careful that we do not unwrap our gift,
discard the wrapping,
and after a quick thank you,
become consumed by the gift while neglecting the giver.
If it is things you want…God can give you things.
If things are all you want you will be satisfied for a time.
But soon you will find things are not all you want,
and certainly not all you need
Soon, should wisdom find you,
you will return to the well and source of all blessings.
Then you will join those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
You will notice that the things you acquired at such cost,
lie in disarray, crumbled at your feet.
If it is things you want you will never be satisfied.
If it is God you want you will never be in want (Psa. 23:1).
If it is God you want and things come your way—that is fine.
He has blessed you, so rejoice!
But hold all these things lightly, with an open hand.
Hold them in such a way that He might take and give without a struggle.
Hold them in such a way that our God may remain our God
and all these things remain simply—all these things.
Gen. 32:26, Deut 8, Job 13:15, Matt. 5:6, Matt. 6:33, Phil. 3:8
Copyright©2010 Hudson Russell Davis
(Please leave a comment telling me how God has shaped your view of “things.” Has He?)
Amen! The things of the world lure us, we become collectors and idoltors of things. But, as our Faith and relationship with God grows, He gives us the strength to let go of things. Our focus truns to Him. To God be the Glory! Thanks Hudson for sharing.
Love it, Hudson! The Lord has been teaching Kerry and me this very truth this summer. It is a great freedom to hold things lightly and occasionally (hopefully more and more), not to pick them up in the first place. The Lord shows us that He is much more satisfying than any of His blessings. Love to you and Rachel.
So true!
The thing about thing is that you can’t just set them aside once, rather many times a day, every day. They have a nasty, insidious way of crawling back to stare you in the face. The good news is that once you HAVE gotten rid of some “things,” you KNOW you can do it again (without quite so much anguish)….and must if God is to be on the throne. More good news is that you will feel much lighter!