The Prison of Want

excerpt from Max Lucado's Travelling Light, pg 30-31

David has found the pasture where discontent goes to die. It's as if he is saying
"What I have in God
is greater than
what i don't have in life"

You think you and I could learn to say the same?

Think for just a moment about the things you own. Think about the house you have, the car you drive, the money you've saved. Think about the jewelry you;ve inherited and the stocks you've traded and the clothes you've purchased. Envision all your stuff, and let me remind you of two biblical truths.

Your stuff isn't yours. Ask any coroner. Ask any embalmer. Ask any funeral-home director. No one takes anything with him. When one of the wealthiest men in history, John D. Rockefeller, died, his accountant was asked, "How much did John D. leave?" The accountant's reply?
"All of it"

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labour that he can carry in his hand" (eccles 5:15 niv).

All that stuff- it's not yours. And you know what else about all that stuff?
it's not you.
Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drove. Jesus said, "Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have alot" (luke12:15msg).
Heaven does not know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house or the kid with the new bike. Heaven knows your heart. "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1sam16:7niv)
When God looks at you, He may see your compassion, your devotion, your tenderness or quick mind, but he doesnt think of your things.

And when you think of you, you shouldn't either.Define yourself by your stuff, and you'll feel good when u have a lot and bad when you don't. Contentment comes when we can honestly say with Paul: "I have learnt to be satisfied with thing things i have... i know how to live when i am poor, and i know how to live when i have plenty (Phil4:11-12)