I found the following devotional very encouraging, so I am sharing it with you today. Its passage includes the first 9 words of John 3:16.—“¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave…”

“The word lifestyle has been popular for several decades. In simplest terms, this word denotes how we live from a financial standpoint, the possessions we choose to buy and how much money we have to spend.

Many books and articles have been written about the simple life—downshifting or downscaling. At the same time, we see an ongoing exaltation in our culture of all that is “excessive.” As a nation, we seem to love peering into the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We envy them. Every few minutes, television commercials tell us to buy more and better possessions.

The two paths—one toward a materially leaner life and the other toward a materially fatter life—are like opposite lanes on a highway. We are going in either one direction or the other. We are seeking to discard and downsize, or to acquire and add.

The Scriptures call us to neither a Spartan nor an opulent lifestyle, but rather, to a lifestyle of generosity—a life without greed or hoarding. A life of giving freely, a life of putting everything we have at God’s disposal. Our lifestyle is not about how much we earn, what we own, or where we travel and reside. It’s how we relate to other people and how willing we are to share all we have with them.

In Visions of a World Hungry, Thomas G. Pettepiece offers this prayer: “Lord, help me choose a simpler life-style that promotes solidarity with the world’s poor . . . affords greater opportunity to work together with my neighbors.”

As you touch your various possessions through-
out the day—from the appliances in your home to your clothing and your vehicle—ask yourself, “Would I be willing to loan, give, or share this with other people?” Then ask the even tougher question, “Do I actually share, loan, or give of my substance on a regular basis to others?”

Blessings on your faith journey,

Gene