Okay, I will be the first person to admit that I LOVE to shop. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been a bit of a shopaholic. I love to buy anything and everything that is girly and cute. Dresses, shoes, bags...all items that I have had an abundance of at one time or another.

Now I never really saw this as a problem until a few years ago.  I started to get involved in serving at soup kitchens and studying the different injustices throughout the world.  I started to realize just how self-absorbed we really are in this culture.  I started to realize how self-absorbed I had been. I realized that I often defined myself by my possessions, somehow thinking that they made me who I was.  I became cooler and cooler in my own mind and started to look down on people who had less than me.  And I began to realize just how much greed could change a person.  It made me see that I needed to change from the person I had become to the person God wanted me to be.

In Luke 12:15 Jesus says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

Jesus calls us to be "on guard" against greed.  I believe the reason is because greed, as insignificant as it may seem, has the power to really mess up our lives.  When the physical things we have, and the things the world tells we need to become accepted consume us, we begin to lose our focus on Jesus.

And slowly the world pulls us into its selfish nature that teaches things will make us happy.  And Jesus becomes pushed back further and further behind the stuff that we store up for ourselves.  This is exactly what happened to me. Things became more and more important and Jesus kept getting pushed behind them.

Now don't take this to mean you can never go shopping and you have to live with nothing more than two outfits.  I know we're girls, and we still love pretty things. The goal is to make sure those things don't become more important to you than the One who allows you to have them.  It is up to us to make the balance between fun shopping every now and then, and excessive greed.

Some of the things I have done are to clean out my closet every season and then donate all the clothes that I either don't wear or simply don't need.  Then when you purchase a new shirt or skirt you can simply donate an old one. This way you're not just piling up an excessive amount of clothes.  Another great thing to do if you have that shopping feeling that you just can't shake is to purchase something from an organization that gives part of your proceeds to a good cause.  There are tons of places with bags and items that are made to benefit underprivileged people in different countries.  This is a great way to purchase an item you need while helping someone else at the same time.

The bottom line is really this - if our eyes and our hearts are focused on Jesus, the things of this world become less and less appealing and their hold on us becomes less and less strong.

So keep your hearts focused and greed won't be able to take over.

Alysia Fuchs has been in the youth ministry realm for about eight years now. She has been especially involved in Girls Ministry for the last four years. Writing devotions and articles on godly living for teen girls is her passion. In her spare time, she loves to cook, clean, drink coffee, hike in the woods, and play with her dogs. She and her four dogs currently live in Ohio.