Apart from you, I have no good thing

by Eloise Swallow

“I say to the Lord “You are my Lord, apart from you I have no good thing”

Psalm 16:2

Our spare room has a pile of boxes that we’re ignoring, left over from when we moved in and never unpacked them. Chatting to some friends recently, I realised that they’ve also got a spare room full of boxes that were never unpacked. Which is ridiculous.

We’ve got so much stuff that we either don’t have room for, or we’ve not even needed since moving house, so it’s just sitting forgotten in a box, replaced by more stuff that we’ve since bought.

Our lives can feel a bit like our spare room. We live in a materialistic society that is constantly screaming at us to buy more, earn more, have more, be more…but when we work and work to accumulate more and more stuff to insulate ourselves with, we push God out- our lives full of stuff mean that there’s no room for God.

We think we don’t need him, because we’re protected by our “stuff”- our money, our house, our nice clothes, but we always need God.

We don’t need him more or less when we have more or less earthly wealth, but the more earthly wealth we gather, the harder it is to remember that.

Stripping back all the “stuff”, focusing less on ourselves and all the wealth we can gather, makes room for God. It makes us confront the pride that tells us that we can just rely on ourselves and all the wealth we’ve gathered.

Choosing to intentionally go without reminds us how much we should rely on God; without him, we have no good thing.

Why not go without a “little luxury” this week- eg takeaway coffee, lunch out, and when you notice the lack, use it as an opportunity to pray and ask God what you should do with the excess money.

Lord,

help me to unclutter my life. Help me not to depend on accumulating things and money, but to depend on you. Thank you that you give us good things, and in you we find all that we need.

Amen