I saw a Facebook post from a friend recently that said “We need to learn to love people & use possessions instead of using people & loving possessions”. What a great summary of how my attitude towards possessions can be the means by which I expose people to the gospel!
How can possessions and your attitude towards them be the means by which you expose people to the gospel? What does it look like for me to use possessions to love people? What does it tangibly look like to find my joy & security in God by loving people with the things He has given me?
Jesus says in Luke 12:15 that we must “Watch out & be on guard against all greed because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions”. Greed is the underlying issue for a person who is shackled in the bonds of consumerism & discontentment. Greed is love’s enemy that causes us to use people in our attempts to love ourselves wrongly through our possessions.
To truly use my possessions to love people and thereby expose them to the gospel I must continue to learn & live within the abundance of God’s generous riches of His grace which brings true life.
True life found & lived in the gospel as it pertains to my possessions exposes people to the love of God expressed through gospel tangibles such as generosity & servanthood.
Generosity & servanthood are means by which people can be exposed to the gospel because when I generously share my possessions, give away my possessions or seek to serve someone in need with my possessions I am tangibly connecting someone to the gospel by emulating my Father in Heaven who generously gave His Son Jesus to serve my deep need for salvation.
Opening my home to visitors, lending my car to a person in need, taking time to give someone a ride to the doctor, scooping snow from a neighbor’s drive, giving a bed to someone in need, filling someone’s vehicle with fuel, paying to have tires put on someone’s car & paying a utility bill are just a few of the practical gospel tangibles for generously sharing & giving of my possessions to serve people in need.
So if I am truly being changed by the gospel then my attitude towards possessions is being changed too. I will, in effect, continue growing in my ability to use my possessions to love other people tangibly and thereby expose other people to the message of the gospel.