We can all get taken in by the delusion, which suggests that material possessions provide us with security and freedom. However, the truth is that such things are incapable of granting us the security and freedom we desire. Instead, they are often the very things that cause us anxiety and insecurity. If our heart is taken up with material possessions, there will always be the fear that we either, don’t have enough or that we might lose them. Thus they can become a burden that chokes the life out of us and cause us a great deal of worry. The person who worries about material possessions tends to collect more to alleviate their worries and ends up with even more worries.
Jesus offers us some very wise advice concerning material things in the Sermon on the Mount in Mathew 6:25-35 when he says:
“25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”