We all have "stuff" don't we! Not the stuff you have stored in your garage or that unused room in your house that you won't allow anyone to go into. Not even that storage unit you have been paying for all these years filled with stuff you haven't even looked at or thought about in a long time. No, we're talking here about the "stuff" that makes you feel guilty because it is useless in your walk with Jesus and you know it but somehow holding on to it seems oddly comforting. It's YOUR stuff.
One of the favorite "sidesteps" I've heard (and used on occasion too) is this old worn out way of trying to rationalize my "stuff"with the statement, "Well, that's just how I am. Yes I have a quick temper and you don't want to rattle that big dog's chain." Sometimes I've heard it in this way, "My daddy/mother was that way and I am too." Or try this one on for size, "Hey, I'm only human!"
As a new follower of Jesus, one of your greatest challenges, and the one with the greatest payoff, is learning to think right. I have no idea what kind of "stuff" you are guarding in your life. But, as a minister and church elder for a lot of years, I know that whatever hits your hot button and makes you want to tear down the walls when a teacher or preacher shines the light of God's word on your "stuff" should be a wake-up call for you. It might be your relationship with your spouse or someone in your family. It might be what you spend way too much of your family's income on for no spiritual benefit. It might that you whine about not having this new thing or that you have no friends or .... on and on and on.
Listen folks, Jesus died to give you the only true PRICELESS gift and that gift is God himself. In his moving prologue to his gospel, John wrote -
"No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side
has made him known." John 1:18 NIV
Before Jesus came, the world was held in the iron grip of fear and pagan superstition. NO MORE! We can now KNOW God as our Father because the greatest gift of the gospel of Jesus is God the Father. The true sense of John's statement is this - being at the Father's side from eternity, Jesus brought him out, made him visible, understood, literally unfolded him. Because of Jesus, anyone can now know God as he really is, a Father who only wants the very best for his kids.
I think Paul said it clearer and better than I ever could at Romans 12: 1-2 -
"I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and
holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you
may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable and perfect." NASB
Take some time to sit alone and think clearly about your own "stuff". Please realize that God is not trying to make your life a daily exercise in boredom. He only wants to transform the way you think through the blood of Jesus and his Holy Spirit so that you can see him and learn to think his thoughts. He wants to be your FATHER. You must lay all of you on the altar of sacrifice. Only then can transformation begin. You may not jettison all of your "stuff" right away but make a start somewhere with something. You will be proud of who you see in your mirror and those around you may be shocked. But your Father will stand up and cheer.
Be blessed until next time.
