Holding All Things Loosely

God has created all things and as our time on this earth is more fleeting than His, we must hold very loosely onto all our possessions.

Matthew 22.15-33

Reference:  v.21b Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. (NIV Bible)

Explore:  We used to play a game that we had learnt from Sunday School where you would determine who made an object.  It went something like this… ‘Who made a book?’ ‘A book is made out of paper, paper is made from trees, God made the trees.’  It was no surprise that every object we could think of came back to creation and therefore God had made everything.  I have a feeling it was a game created to prove one point in that God made everything, and yet I was keen to keep it going for quite some time (I have an incredibly patient mother!).
However if we apply this game to our Bible reading, it would seem that we must give everything back to God.  He has created all things and as our time on this earth is more fleeting than His, we must hold very loosely onto all our possessions.

Application:  It is difficult for us to think that all things belong to God.  This computer I am working on, if taken through the sequence of my Sunday School game, would also belong to God.  Yet I worked hard to raise the money to pay for this computer.  And not only that but although it is only a machine I have  a personal attachment to it as I have slaved over its keys for long periods of time.  Now, I don’t feel that God is going to come back one day to reclaim all his computers or any other object that we treasure!  The question is, how tightly do we hold on to the objects of this world?  Would we be willing to surrender everything to God?  The obvious answer is ‘yes’ but when it comes to living that out we realise how challenging that ‘yes’ can become.  It’s not just objects that can be perceived as God’s but what about humans.  He fearfully and wonderfully made each one of us, are we willing to give ourselves to him each and every day?  It’s hard and we often ‘reclaim’ ourselves, but when we surrender ourselves and all that we have to God then we have everything in it’s right place.

Prayer:  Lord, we rededicate ourselves to you again this day.  May we hold lightly to the things of this world and work towards your kingdom’s purpose.  Amen.

What are the things of this world that you struggle to hold loosely?

Matthew