We are Achan

Joshua 7 tells the story of the Israelites losing the battle at Ai because they had taken the devoted things and made them their own. These devoted things were objects that were taken from Jericho after they had taken the city in chapter 6. They were commanded to take nothing for themselves but only to take gold, silver, bronze and iron and keep them to be devoted to the Lord, (verse 24). However, Achan decides that he wants to do differently and in verse one of chapter 7 we see that he has taken some of the devoted things and kept them for themselves. It is for this reason that Israel loses the battle at Ai. God tells Joshua that until the devoted things are taken care of, destroyed or given over to the Lord, then Israel will continue to fall in battle. The Bible does not really go into why Achan took the devoted things, but I can imagine that it was because of his own desire for stuff. How are we like Achan? What things do we have in our lives that we should have given over to God but still we keep them in our lives. What things do we have that we should have laid at the cross, but instead we hold on to them? What are your devoted things?

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
Phillipians 3:7-9 (ESV)

These "devoted things" are what Paul tells us we should consider rubbish, (garbage in some translations, and in the King James, the word that is used is dung.)

We are Achan. So take your devoted things, the things you've taken from your "Jericho" and kept for your own selfish ambition, your own sin, and get rid of them.