Spiritual Hoarding

I had the great privilege of attending Centrifuge on the Ridgecrest campus. Our camp pastor, Travis Agnew, brought some amazing messages, but one of his stories followed me home. He shared about traveling overseas and meeting a young woman who was overwhelmed at God answering her prayers. She had been praying for American missionaries to come and teach her how to grow in her faith and share the gospel more effectively. When Travis pried deeper, he discovered she had been a Christian for six months and was disappointed that she had only been able to lead sixty people to Jesus. He was flabbergasted. And so was I.

Hoarding Faith

This young woman understood the urgency of telling others about Christ. While she thought sixty souls in six months wasn’t enough, I look back over my life. Have I shared Jesus with sixty people since my own salvation thirty years ago? My heart ached. The words of Romans 10:14-15 (CSB) echoed in my mind: “How then can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.’”

American Christians are comfortable in our faith—spiritual hoarders. We walk down aisles, profess our faith, fill out cards, and get dunked. But for many, that’s where it stops. They have their fire insurance. Then there are the church attenders who give their tithe and volunteer; they might even teach a Sunday school class or lead the prayer meeting. But do they share their faith?

It saddens me to know there are Christians in our communities who have never once shared their faith. I heard a preacher say there are only two things we can do on earth that we can’t do in heaven. We can sin, and we can tell others about Jesus for the first time. He then asked which one we would use our time on earth doing.

Hoarding Gifts

All believers have specific gifts for use in God’s Kingdom—teachers, servants, and the list goes on and on. We are likened to a body in the book of 1 Corinthians, all having specific parts and purposes. If one part decides it’s not important, then the whole body suffers. If another part chooses to go its own way, then nothing will function properly.

Whether intentional or through self-sabotage, we can also become spiritual hoarders of our God-given gifts. Thinking we’re a nobody or unnecessary to the body makes us just as guilty as the prideful body part who wants to take their own path. We must offer our gifts to God with open hands. No excuses. No belittling. A simple yes is all he needs from us.

Hoarding Monuments

Along the road of our spiritual journey, there are markers. These markers represent the highs and lows of our walk with Christ. On one side of the road is a marker representing our overseas mission trip to a third world country. A few miles ahead, there’s a marker reminding us of the friend or family member we lost. Or maybe there’s a marker around the bend that represents when we stepped out in faith and God blessed us in unimaginable ways.

No matter how the marker got there, sometimes these markers can become monuments of grandeur that we hold sacred in our minds, but never move past in our hearts. They are like the monuments in museums that we visit from time to time and stand in awe over. We look back at these monuments and remember. But we never move forward. Those were the glory days. The best times of our lives. But in reality, it was a marker. A moment. A stepping-stone toward greater faith, not a reason to hoard those spiritual blessings.

Spiritual Clean Out

How do we move from being a spiritual hoarder to being spiritually free?

WE GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY.

If we fill our cup in the morning, we empty it before we go to bed. The newest lesson we learned in scripture doesn’t stay trapped inside, we share it with another believer. We talk about the salvation we received through grace, by faith, and never stop. No matter where we go, the name of Jesus is never far from our lips.

We surrender excuses and lay aside all our fears. The uncertainty we feel isn’t from God in the first place, so we hang it on the hook by the door. No worries about how another person will respond to the Gospel of Jesus. We simply open our mouth and share all the amazing things God has done in our lives.

Are you guilty of spiritual hoarding? I know I am. When my dear friend shared this concept with me, it stabbed me to the core. I want to be spiritually free. How about you?

(For more on living your faith, read: https://inspireafire.com/live-your-faith/)

Copyright Christy Bass Adams, July 2024, all images from Canva

Christy Bass Adams

Christy Bass Adams, is the Outreach and Connections Coordinator at Fellowship Baptist Church in Madison, Florida. She is also a writer and had her first devotional book published in summer of 2022 (Big Lessons from Little People) followed by a middle grades novel (Imagination Checkers) in the fall. Her most important role, however, is with her family as a wife of 18 years and mother to two busy boys. She worked in education for over 18 years at both the elementary and collegiate levels. Her favorite pastimes are fishing and sitting around a fire. For more from Christy, visit her blog at christybassadams.com.

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