Hoarders - Guest Post

Guest post by Paula Phillips

During the New Year’s holiday, I first watched the reality TV show “Hoarders.” This show focuses on the stories of people that have a serious disorder that causes them to accumulate an exorbitant amount of things, which, in turn, inhibits their ability to live a healthy life.

By definition, hoarding is “accumulation that is hidden or carefully guarding for preservation for future use.” On the television show, many different people said the same thing when their family members tried to clean out their house. “Don’t get rid of that! I’ll use that! That’s still good!”

Accumulating things isn’t bad. However, accumulating things for no purpose or planned intent other than accumulation is hazardous.

In Proverbs 11:24-26, Solomon writes: 

24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 25 A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. 26 People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.

It is clear that Solomon doesn’t warn against saving, but rather ones that “hoard” or “withhold unduly.” More over, we see that one who “gives freely” will “gain even more” and “whoever refreshes others will be refreshed”. The Bible has other examples of the importance of not only giving freely, but to invest. We see this in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. In the story, the master leaves three of his workers with varied amounts of money. When he returns, the first two workers had doubled what was originally given to them. Sadly, the third worker hoarded the money and was rebuked and thrown into darkness for essentially not risking and increasing the master's investment.

The life you have been given is a gift from God. Do not squander it or wait another day to fully invest it?

Take the time to ask yourself:

· How am I accumulating my money and my time?

· Am I carefully guarding the above for a specific future use? If so, what use? If not, why are you storing up treasures on earth?

Prayer for the day:

Lord, Please show me how and what I am accumulating. I want to be someone who refreshes others and not someone that keeps everything to myself. Help me learn how to give freely of myself and truly invest my life in Godly things. Amen. To learn more about Paula Phillips, you can follow her twitter.