FAST FROM ACCUMULATING AND PRACTICE CONTENTMENT

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Hebrews 13:5

I saw a cartoon this week that featured an old man standing with his son in front of an open garage door.  The garage was piled high to the ceiling, full of a lifetime of accumulated junk.  The man was saying,  “One day son, this will all be yours.”  One thing I know for sure, my kids don’t want my stuff!  So why do we spend our lives  longing for, accumulating, buying, arranging, storing, cleaning, rearranging. and moving our stuff?  It requires so much of our time and energy just to maintain it all. 

This little cartoon gave me an idea.   Can I begin a financial fast for the last three weeks of Lent?  Can I fast from accumulating stuff, I wondered?  Can I challenge myself to stay off of Amazon and away from Zappos for the next three weeks?  Can I limit my purchases to the bare necessities, buying only what I absolutely need?  Can I resist bowing to the Starbucks coffee god and learn to be content with coffee from home?  Fasting comes in all forms, and a financial fast is something to consider trying. I would hope to learn to be more content, to learn to be happy with what I have.  To be thankful.  And to share what I have with those in need.  

Lent is hard, but oh, so good my friends.

ON CONTENTMENT:  

Psalm 34:10b Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

2 Cor. 12:9-10 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” …Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Consider this as well:
Clutter isn’t just in your home, attic, garage, or office.  Clutter is also in your mind, and distracts you from the amazing things you were meant to do.    KATRINA MAYER: