Thursday, April 3, 2014

Can't Buy Me Love

Today is the 3rd of the month.What does that mean? Since today is the day I get my Social Security Disability check, it means an end - for a while - of saying "no" to things we need or want or things that we think we need and want but could easily live without.

Today I paid my medical bills (payments over time), I paid of the low balance on my credit card...I ordered online groceries which will arrive this evening.  And THEN,I went shopping. In years past it would entail a trip to NY orNJ to go to some malls and department stores...coming home with bags of goodies.

These days it means going around to my favorite sites to see what is new and what I simply MUST have.SO I placed about 5 orders between $20 and $45....and then - like the rock between the eyes that felled Goliath came God's word to my greedy soul."Do you really need this stuff? Do you even have ROOM for it? And what will happen at the end of the month when you are broke--you really should save this money for those days.

So I gulped and went to each site and canceled the whole order.Well, some of the Amazon order stayed because I DID need it.And I kept one drinking bottle for summer iced tea. How did I feel?  I felt GOOD. I felt FREE.  And I made a promise to myself.From now on, I will put items into my wish list--and come back in two or three weeks--and will see if I still had the need or desire for the item. Speaking from experience I can tell you that I didn't really want the stuff.

The Bible says  greed is idolatry. When we get our thrills from clicking "checkout" with our mouse rather than from asking God where my money needs to go. Tithe? Gifts to the poor?  When we desire other than Christ...we are lost in idolatry. When we covet items we see online or at a neighbor's house...that is a major sin...it made the top 10.  Why?  Because to desire the product rather than the Maker --is to spit in God's face and to get smiles from things rather than from the joy the Lord promises to give us when we put HIM FIRST--is to be completely reversed in the things/ones we love most.

Lord, forgive me for the times recently that I have attempted to buy myself happiness rather than coming to your for JOY.  The expenditures leave a bad taste in my mouth. And soon they become just another ball and chain around my ankle that I have to drag around one more thing to sell at a garage sale for nowhere NEAR as much as I paid for it. It disappointed me.It let me down. It did not deliver what it promised--like the Beatles sang "Can't Buy Me Love"

But intimacy with God is the gift we get from God and it's the"Gift that keeps on giving"  And He becomes more valuable in time rather than less.

No comments: