ARE YOUR POSSESSIONS POSSESSING YOU?
Joshua 7:12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
The nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan River and was entering at last the Promised Land that God had promised them through their ancestor Abraham. The first city that stood in their way was Jericho. It was a very large city with high, thick walls. Without the help of the Lord it would have been impossible for a group of people that were not a skilled army to take the city. They were simply slaves in route to find a homeland. Before the attack Joshua told the people that all the silver, gold, bronze and iron were to go into the Lord’s treasury. These were to be devoted to the Lord. Sad to say a man by the name of Achan found a beautiful robe from Babylon, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, and he took them back and hid them in his tent, with the silver underneath. Because these things had been dedicated to the Lord and Achan took them,God saw this as being stolen from him. Consequently God did not help Israel defeat their next enemy, and said he would not help them until the devoted items had been returned.
We know that God did not need any of these things. After all God spoke everything into being. If God would want gold or silver he could turn the entire earth into either. The problem was much like it was with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. They gave a gift to the Lord, but lied about the gift and kept part of it back for themselves. The problem in both cases was that they thought they could keep from God what they knew belonged to him.
Often Christians will do the same thing. They keep for themselves what really belongs to the Lord. I am not talking about money although Malachi 3:8-12 talks about robbing God by not bringing in the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. These were sacrifices given to the Lord that in turn God gave to the Levites to eat. What I am getting at are those things that we hold as precious to us, and we hold the back from God and can be seen as burying them under our tent. They come in all sorts of sizes and packages. They are sometimes our family, friends, jobs, entertainment and the like. What may seem like insignificant to one person may be gold to another.
God does not resent that we have them or enjoy them. It does bother him when we don’t include him in them! What we have that we can’t trust God with is a major problem in God’s thinking. It is like having sand placed in your hand. The more you close your hand and the tighter you make it the more it starts to become deformed into your likeness. We can take wonderful children or even a husband or wife and so control and possess them that we can’t any longer see Jesus in them and enjoy them for fear of losing them. When our possession begin to possess us is when we no longer consider them as God’s gifts loaned to us to enjoy and appreciate. The best gift will always be the ones we are quick to devote back to the Lord. Doing this we always rejoice in the Lord every time we look at them or enjoy them. With Jesus’ gifts we always receive Jesus, unless that is if we keep the gift burred under our tent.
In reflection I believe this takes us to cause, effect and remedy. The cause for keeping our plunder or possessions to ourselves is often fear of losing them or sharing them. Sometimes we keep from including Jesus from our possessions is because he might think we love them more than we do him. Other times is we don’t trust him to share it. What if he asks us to give them up, or share it with someone else? We see this with our own family. Sometimes we hold them so tight, we squeeze the love right out of them. Other times we don’t trust the Lord with them, because he might cause them to love and give him more attention and loyalty. The effect will be that the love, trust and joy we have in our gifts will leave. Most of all the appreciation for the gift and even the giver. The remedy is simple! Get the gifts back in the correct perspective. Always keep them in light of the giver. Why should we think that we need to keep it all to ourself? What good is our gift to kept in a safe or stored away in fear of losing it. A gift is best enjoyed with the giver, and so it is with Jesus’ gifts and Jesus himself.
Are you trusting Jesus with all your cherished possessions? If you can trust him with your soul, I think you can trust him with anything. If he wants you to let it go, it wasn’t worth keeping and wasn’t good for you. Remember God always wants what is best for you, and because of this you can always trust him with your best!
Prayer: Thank you Lord for all you have given us. Please set us free to trust you with all you have given us, so we can enjoy them together. We ask this in Jesus name.
