Simple Living

Do a Google search on "simple living" and you'll be amazed at how many links pop up. It's become a movement among us, this concept of living with less.

But you know what? God doesn't care how much you have or don't have, as long as you don't place a higher premium on your things than on Him.

So many of us get our identity completely wrapped up in temporal things, but He wants us to have our identity in Him. That was the point He made to the rich young ruler, when Jesus told him he had to sell everything he had to follow Him. For that young man, his identity was in his riches. It was in his clothes. It was in what others thought of him because of his possessions. It was in how his possessions made him feel.

Not only was it about identity, but for this young man, Jesus knew that his possessions would always be a distraction. Much like Jesus' teaching to lop off your arm if it is what causes you to sin, in the same way Jesus told this young man to get rid of his possessions because for this particular man, it would require simple living for him to be able to serve Jesus.

But God doesn't require of all of us that we sell our possessions to follow Him. On the other hand, if that statement makes you feel relieved, then that's likely a signal that you should stop to examine what it is that you are so glad that He isn't asking you to give up. It just might point you to something that needs to be submitted to Him.

It's not that He wants to take your precious possessions away from you, it's that He wants you to let it go so that He can be free to either make it grow into something better, or to replace it with something more wonderful. And that doesn't necessarily mean that if you let your big screen TV go He'll give you an even bigger big screen TV. His blessings aren't always material, and your material goods may be replaced with non-temporal things. But if you're submitted to Him, those blessings will make you happier than anything material ever could.

Imagine being the woman Elijah went to seeking food during a severe drought. She and her son were down to their last bit of oil and flour, and Elijah came and told her to make him some food. It may seem a small thing to give a small bit of oil and flour, but in reality, by giving her oil and flour, she was surrendering her life and her son's life in order to feed the prophet. It was the last of her food, the last of her sustenance. Yet she gave. And she was rewarded with a miracle, and was provided oil and flour througout the entire time that drought was on the land.

So, to summarize, it's not that He commands us to live simply or to live with few material goods. Rather, He asks that we not allow our possessions to become so important to us that we become unwilling to do as He requests. He asks us to be willing to trade the temporal for the eternal. He asks to be number one in our lives.

Is that where He is in your life? What things are more important than Him to you?