Trash to Treasures?
It’s true that someone else’s trash could be someone else’s treasure. I have had a business now for several months where I take other people’s old, unwanted stuff… home furnishings, fix it up and resell it. In my little town, two of these new shops have opened in the last six months and business is doing very well. It is a “shabby-chic” take-off of the Goodwill or Salvation Army.
Last night, as I lay in bed praying for someone who has a lot of “junk” in their life, the Lord and I had a talk. I was asking the Lord why this person would want to carry around all this old, unwanted, dirty stuff in their life. The Lord revealed to me that to some people, Christians and non-Christians, what I and you might consider “trash” in their lives they have made into “treasures”. Treasures are anything that a person considers valuable, something that a person values. That is different depending on the person. One of my treasures is the pictures of my children when they were babies, but I have a friend that won’t look at pictures of her children because she feels a sense of loss now that they are grown up. Pictures are a treasure to me but not to my friend.
It is the same for people that are on the wrong path in life. The wrong man or woman could be a treasure in their life even though it is an unhealthy relationship because they are insecure, or lonely, or have been hurt in life. What might be “junk” as far as a relationship in my mind to them has value. Someone could be making all kinds of bad choices….drinking a lot, hanging with the wrong crowd, involved in pornography, drugs…to them what they have is a "treasure". “We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments” Daniel 9:5. No matter what their family or friends tell them, they what to hang on to whatever it is because to them it has value. The only problem is their value on this behavior is wrongly placed. They are putting value on it because there is a deep longing, insecurity, something missing inside of them. They hang onto this “trash”…their treasure because they don’t know how to change or don’t want to change. “The body is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption” I Corinthians 15:42. Also, the people around are behaving the same way. We tend to have friends that are involved in the same behavior as we are. They don’t receive any encouragement or support from their “friends”.
The important thing is to pray for anyone who has made the “junk” in their lives become “treasures”. “Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” James 5:16. The only way they can rid themselves of the “trash” is a deep, committed relationship with Jesus Christ. All of us need the strength of our Lord and Savior to battle the things in our lives. Next, to a relationship with the Lord, these people who are struggling need to see Godly examples around them. They need an outing with a Christian friend or family member, maybe lunch, a shopping trip, or a Sunday dinner. God wants us, his followers, to extend ourselves to the people around us. We are supposed to bring Christ to others.
Finally, pray hard and ask God to reveal any “trash” in your life that you might have turned into “treasure”. Even in a mature relationship with Christ we are not immune to “turning trash into treasures”. After all, “we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God”. As for me, I want to keep my “trash to treasures” in my shop for cash, not in my heart and pay for eternity!
“And forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against you”. I Kings 8:50
Last night, as I lay in bed praying for someone who has a lot of “junk” in their life, the Lord and I had a talk. I was asking the Lord why this person would want to carry around all this old, unwanted, dirty stuff in their life. The Lord revealed to me that to some people, Christians and non-Christians, what I and you might consider “trash” in their lives they have made into “treasures”. Treasures are anything that a person considers valuable, something that a person values. That is different depending on the person. One of my treasures is the pictures of my children when they were babies, but I have a friend that won’t look at pictures of her children because she feels a sense of loss now that they are grown up. Pictures are a treasure to me but not to my friend.
It is the same for people that are on the wrong path in life. The wrong man or woman could be a treasure in their life even though it is an unhealthy relationship because they are insecure, or lonely, or have been hurt in life. What might be “junk” as far as a relationship in my mind to them has value. Someone could be making all kinds of bad choices….drinking a lot, hanging with the wrong crowd, involved in pornography, drugs…to them what they have is a "treasure". “We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments” Daniel 9:5. No matter what their family or friends tell them, they what to hang on to whatever it is because to them it has value. The only problem is their value on this behavior is wrongly placed. They are putting value on it because there is a deep longing, insecurity, something missing inside of them. They hang onto this “trash”…their treasure because they don’t know how to change or don’t want to change. “The body is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption” I Corinthians 15:42. Also, the people around are behaving the same way. We tend to have friends that are involved in the same behavior as we are. They don’t receive any encouragement or support from their “friends”.
The important thing is to pray for anyone who has made the “junk” in their lives become “treasures”. “Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” James 5:16. The only way they can rid themselves of the “trash” is a deep, committed relationship with Jesus Christ. All of us need the strength of our Lord and Savior to battle the things in our lives. Next, to a relationship with the Lord, these people who are struggling need to see Godly examples around them. They need an outing with a Christian friend or family member, maybe lunch, a shopping trip, or a Sunday dinner. God wants us, his followers, to extend ourselves to the people around us. We are supposed to bring Christ to others.
Finally, pray hard and ask God to reveal any “trash” in your life that you might have turned into “treasure”. Even in a mature relationship with Christ we are not immune to “turning trash into treasures”. After all, “we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God”. As for me, I want to keep my “trash to treasures” in my shop for cash, not in my heart and pay for eternity!
“And forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against you”. I Kings 8:50
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