Spiritual Hoarding!

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We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.

2 Peter 1:3-4

There are two basic provisioning problems in life. The first is not having everything you need and the second is when you have more than you need. Not having enough is the problem of poverty, and having more than you need can become the problem of compulsive hoarding. These folks fill to overflowing their living spaces with stuff that they believe they will need and can't bring themselves to give up. In extreme cases hoarders live in squalor and filth, barely able to maneuver around their possessions.

I usually call my wife to see if there is anything she needs which I can stop at the store and get on the way home from work. The old saying "Bringing home the bacon" is about the fundamental task of making sure you have what is needed in life. Having more than you need can quickly become a burden.

There are issues of provisioning in your spiritual life as well. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ and believe that you don't have enough to live your life for Him, you are wrong. You may think you are poor, but you are not. As a Christian, there is also the temptation to become a spiritual hoarder. You go to conferences, read the latest books and make sure your theology is honed to perfection. You do all this to the point of beginning to ignore the Bible and the daily walking out of the Truth you find in God's Word.

Satan is not threatened by Spiritual Hoarders, whose lives are immobilized by all the piles of "good" stuff that keeps them from living as Jesus did in the world. The successful Christian life is not the one who has more Spiritual stuff stored away. The successful Christian life is the one who can escape evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world because God's nature has become a part of it!

Spiritual obesity occurs when you eat the food and then don't work with the energy that comes from that provision. When you come across some tasty morsel of Spiritual reality in the Bible, ask God to show you how that truth can be used in your walk with Him today!