Luke 12:33
"Sell your material possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don't wear out! Make a treasure for yourselves in heaven that never loses its value! In heaven thieves and moths can't get close enough to destroy your treasure."
I found this description of the passage on Loyola Press website:
"A popular saying is "less is more". It's what we hear Jesus telling his disciples. The follower of Jesus does not rely on wealth or material possessions to give life meaning. what Jesus is saying in essence, is "Less material possessions is more freedom." Sound strange? When we depend on God for what we truly need, we discover an inner freedom, which is God's gift. Recognizing our dependence on God frees us from working so hard to accumulate things that we can't take with us when we die. the only treasure worth working for is the Kingdom of God. Nothing else matters."
What a great explanation the author gives to this reading. God doesn't care if we have no possessions, He cares more about if we have possessions what do we do with them. Do we share them to bring joy and happiness to others? And if we don't have possessions He doesn't care. He will give us great joy and happiness later!
Use what you have, your treasures, wisely. Give to others to better everyone. If you have no material treasures, give your time and talent treasures to help others. We can all give in so many ways.
I have been thinking a great deal about possessions lately. We have a business that we built ourselves and it is very hard to think that we may be losing it. It is hard to give things up. I know that we don't need this to be happy ~ and trust me, we would probably be happier right now without the headaches of trying to keep going, but it is very hard to stop. I want to say give up, but then I feel like I wouldn't have tried hard enough to make it work. We have the anxiety of not knowing where our income will come from also. I know we should trust in God, but being human makes that extremely hard. My faith is being tested daily right now and it is very difficult. I am struggling to make the right decisions and don't like being angry all the time.
My husband and I decided quite a while ago, that we needed to try our hardest to save our business, because then - no matter what happens, we can look at ourselves in the mirror and know we did our best, whether it survives or whether it fails.
This Bible reading from Luke really makes me realize that it is okay. Less is more. Less material possessions that I have to worry about will give me more time to be drawn closer to God.
