Don't Love the World's Things

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God as Our Shepherd

1 John 2:15-17 The Message

15-17 Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

For Reflection

Is the meaning of your life tied up in collecting and finding a place to store your stuff?  Then, there is the problem of protecting your stuff.  (Heaven forbid that someone should steal your stuff!). You criticize other people's stuff, 'cause it's not like your stuff, and that makes you feel uncomfortable.  After all, what kind of inferior person would have that kind of stuff? If you find that you have more places than stuff, do you need to buy more stuff to fill up the space?  (My apologies to George Carlin, "A Place for My Stuff,"1981)
The space in our souls can be filled with all kinds of stuff.  But, the most satisfying is filling our souls with the stuff of God.  This is the stuff that needs protection.   This is the stuff of loving relationships. This is the stuff that has no expiration date!

Pray

Pray that you will reject the seduction of accumulation material things.  Pray that you will store sacred truths in you soul.  Pray that your soul is never empty of spiritual stuff.