Unattached

Those of us who want to experience the fullness of God have to come to grips with the reality that we can’t have both worlds. “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Luke 16:13 NLT)

Things like money, possessions, the approval of other, and the thrill of being in control of others (power) are ‘attachments’ that keep us from the kingdom of God. When Jesus called his disciples, they left everything and followed him. But they were still strongly attached to a desire for power and influence. When Jesus was predicting his death, the disciples didn’t hear him because they were too busy arguing about which of them would be greatest (Lk. 9:46). Again at the last supper, while Jesus was giving them his final words, they were distracted by an argument about who would be the greatest among them (Lk. 22:24).

To be filled with the fullness of God, we first must be emptied of self and its attachments. The Apostle John wrote, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” (1 John 2:15-17 NLT)

How does this happen? We are all so deeply attached to possessions, power, and the praise of others. That is the purpose of the Lord’s Prayer. It helps us return these ‘attachments’ to their rightful owner. “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” (Lk. 11:2) When we understand this prayer correctly, we are saying to God, “Let your name be exalted and honored, not mine. Let all the circumstances in my life and in the world around me be controlled by you, rightful King, not me. And let the pleasure of having things go your way be yours alone, my God, not mine.”

We aren’t able to release these attachments without the help of God’s Holy Spirit. “For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.” (Heb. 9:14 NLT) Just as our Lord depended on the Sprit to offer himself to God, we must also rely on supernatural help to stop finding our life in the things around us and find it in God alone.