Stephen spoke from Matthew 6:19-21 last night, looking at ‘God stuff’ and ‘ordinary stuff’ and how our preoccupation with the latter often crowds out room for the former.
Gillette (famous for making razors) used to run an advertising campaign with the slogan ‘the best a man can get‘:
The razor for women (temptingly named Venus) was said to:
The fact remains that if we want God’s best for our lives, we have to heed Jesus’s warnings about the dangers of worry and becoming too attached to material possessions. We can easily become more attached to the ‘stuff’ of this world than to God. Possessions take over our lives and our thinking and we become anxious lest we lose them. If the material increases significantly, there is limited space for the things of God. Jesus calls us to value spiritual stuff more than material stuff We cannot serve both God and money (Matt 6:24) but need to bring all our worries to God. Worry takes over what should be God-space (see Matt 6:25-26) and the antidote to worry is given in Matt 6:33-34 where we are told ‘seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well’.
God is the best we can ever have. We have a ‘God-shaped hole’ within us that cannot be filled by material possessions and we need to understand that what we own does not define who we are as people. The definition of our lives needs to come from God, who is generous and gives freely to all. The ‘stuff’ He gives us should be more than simply a blessing to us; it should become the means by which we can bless others. Where are our treasures? What are our treasures? Are we worrying about material stuff or is it in God’s hands?
This week’s ‘Doctor Who’ episode was entitled ‘Journey to the centre of the Tardis’. The Tardis, Dr Who’s time machine, is deceptively large. It looks like a police telephone box from the outside, but inside is ‘infinite.’ In the same way, God is so much bigger than anything we can imagine and He does not want to be restricted to some tiny corner of our lives, squeezed out by material things which are only of limited, temporary value and by anxieties and worries which again are time-restricted. He is the infinite One who wants to be the centre of our lives. When we love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, we find the God-space in our lives growing and can use any material blessings He gives us to bless others and to live in freedom from the love of money. God Himself is revealed in us and we experience the best any person can get!