Simplify - Week Two - Less is More

Does your stomach hurt when the bills come? Do you dread hearing that six-letter word, budget? Is the phrase ‘checkbook balance’ a genuine oxymoron? In this day and age we feel incredible pressure to do it all, be it all, and have it all – no matter the cost. But we would be wise to realize, as Ralph Waldo Emerson did, “Sometimes money costs too much.”

Step two of our five week program for simplifying your life asks you to consider the role of money and of possessions. Financial problems easily clutter and cloud every aspect of our lives. The good news is this, more is not always better.

As thoughtful, intentional children of God, we want to fight the world’s system of chasing a lifestyle and instead design and live a life. As we do, we will discover that deliberate obedience and simple elegance is what feeds our relationships, our families, and our souls. Less is more.

Less is More

Answer this question: How much of the busyness and complexity of your life is a result of choosing, purchasing, and maintaining luxury items that you never have time to enjoy?

Does keeping up with the ‘stuff’ of life take increasingly more time and money? We too easily fall into the trap of spending so much time and energy acquiring and then repairing our possessions that we barely have time to enjoy them. Crazy, isn’t it? It is because we have forgotten this truth, everything comes from God and exists for God.

We are but stewards of our lives and our resources. A faithful steward waits to hear from the Master before she decides what to buy and what not to buy. Then and only then does the steward implement the Master’s will. God has a plan for all our lives and it is greater than the sum of our possessions.

Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
I John 2:15-17 (MSG)

Action Step: Make a list of five things in your life that you are planning to purchase this year or that you already own. Prayerfully submit each one to God and ask Him what He would have you do. Do it.