Making Room for God

I want to make room in my life for God. That may seem like an obvious statement but there are times when we fill our lives with so much stuff that we limit God's ability to use us in the way that He desires. When he doesn't answer in the time or in the way that we think He should then we puzzle about all the hows and whys. What we do not understand is that our own inability to let go of the stuff that we feel we must have hinders how and when God can use us. The hindrance is not because of God's inability to do the work but our inability to relent control of our stuff. 

There are so much stuff that we fill our lives with that there isn't any leeway for us to be available for God's work. We must have a certain type of car or house that keeps us obligated to work more than God wants us to work. We fill our hearts with desires that are smaller than what God wants for us thereby we limit His ability to give us from His abundance (I am not speaking of money here but it could be about money also). We crowd God out of our houses by filling them to the brim with stuff that only serves as a distraction and a hindrance to hearing the voice of God. We crowd God out of our minds when we become self-sufficient and self-reliant. We don't give God room to be our healer when we think to go to the doctor first and praying second rather than praying first. We do not give room for God to be our provider when we think to get a loan before we think of praying. We do not give room for God to be the lover of our souls when we seek to find fulfillment in the flesh first. 

When we give room for all the stuff, whether material possessions or emotional needs or even desires of our heart, we are crowding out the room and availability that God needs to do the work that He desires to do in our lives. When we give preference to a certain lifestyle, God can't send us on the mission field to minister to that one life that can impact 10,000 people in his community. When we make room for a house full of new furniture that we didn't need and that we have pay on credit and pick up a second job to pay for, we give up our availability to teach that one Bible Study that can change the life of a drug addict. When we give room and preference to the social aspects of church, we give up the intimacy of a relationship with God. It is impossible to make room for all our "stuff" and expect God to still utilize us in a powerful way. We cannot crowd out God and expect Him to force His way in. We cannot serve God and flesh.

Matthew 6:21-24

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mannon."