The 2009 economic crisis brought an interesting phrase into the headlines: toxic assets. Toxic assets are one of the factors contributing to the trouble that banks are in now. The assets are loans. Somebody owes the banks money. Normally banks want people to owe them money and pay them interest on the principal. But as the economy now stands, especially with the mortgage foreclosure crisis, many of the loans have actually become liabilities, because the houses that secured the loans have decreased in value below the amount of the loan.

When assets become harmful to your bottom line, they are no longer really assets. They are liabilities. They are toxic.

Toxic assets are not just a banking phenomenon; toxic assets can also be spiritual. A toxic asset is anything we think is an asset but that actually is hurting us spiritually.

Sins of the flesh, such as viewing pornography or taking illegal drugs, are toxic assets. We engage in these pleasures because we think they will benefit us, but the opposite is true.

A house or a car can be a toxic asset when it takes over your life and pushes God to the periphery. A job can be a toxic asset. Money, education, family and friends, physical beauty or handsomeness—all these things can be great assets to you unless you allow them to take God's place in your life, and you live for them or you trust in them. In that case they have become toxic assets.