John 6:27

I come here to post tonight what God has been laying on my heart recently. Until tonight, I haven't truly embraced it. However, when I was reading His Word tonight, the knock on my heart was finally loud enough. I have been letting my laziness of summer come into my relationship with the Lord in the past few weeks, and have truly struggled to stay atop of my reading. Finally, I decided I would sit down and start reading John again, as basically a fresh start after my hiatus. For the past few days, I have really realized that, as bad or as weird as it sounds, I am a bad shopper. I buy everything I want and don't need and truly struggle with this. I don't mean I put ourselves in debt, because we are not. I just spend, spend, spend without any true need. I have no problem buying my 85th pair of shoes, or that shirt that may actually just sit in the closet. Basically, although I do have self control, I have a spending problem. God had been totally laying it on me that I need to stop and start exhurting the self control I do have. There are SO many people on this earth, SO many people God created that have TRUE need and here I am buying another pair of shoes. Talk about rediculous. However, I tried to ignore and block out what God was telling me. Tonight, when I opened up to John 6:27, I realized God has probably had enough of this and he is going to lay it out right here in front of me. John 6:27 reads "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." Now, I'm not talking about food here when reading this. I'm referring to all of the non-necessities of life that I buy on almost a regular basis. So many clothes sit in my closet with tags, I have so many pairs of unworn shoes and my kids have so many outfits that are only worn once. My husband is working so hard and here I am buying all these things which spoil and without any true benefit. We rather need to put our money in places where benefits can be reaped. As I sit here in my lovely home, that has everything and more than I could ever need, I just think of all the poor starving children, children who have lost parents, people without clean water. Those people are in need. Heck, there are many people I'm sure within a 20 mile radius of me that are in desperate need. So, I am making a vow to stop spending frivolously. Until our vacation on July 26, I will not purchase anything I do not need. Although it's a short amount of time (19 days), it's a small start. I pray God uses me to fulfill his desires of my purpose here on Earth as I fully surrender to His will and purpose. All the glory is His, and I give Him all of my praise. Heavenly Father, free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my rock of refuge.