Luke 12:20- But God said to him, \u2018Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe\nall like riches. It would not be a stretch I think to say that some\nlove them. People all over the world seek to attain wealth for a\nnumber of reasons. The two that first come to mind are the\npossessions we can build up and security for our future. Did you\nnotice something about these two perks? They are selfish. Most who\nattain wealth, even if they did not start out that way, wind up\nbecoming very self centered. Not only that, but we forget one very\nimportant thing, our need for God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tRiches,\nthough not wrong in and of themselves, can be a dangerous possession\nfor the Christian. Jesus said in Mark 10:25 that \u201cit is easier for\na camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to\nenter heaven\u201d. Why is that? It is because riches can lead us to\ndo terrible things. In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul warns Timothy that \u201cthe\nlove of money is the root of all kinds of evil.\u201d If a person loves\nmoney, he will do whatever he can to get it. Look at Achan in Joshua\n7. Due to his love of money he stole what rightly belonged to God,\ncausing all Israel to suffer as a result. It led to his own death as\nwell as his family’s. Let us also not forget Judas. He desired\nmoney so much he not only stole from the money bag (John 12:6), but\nhe betrayed Jesus for just 30 pieces of silver. At the realization\nof the latter, it led him to kill himself. Money can lead us down a\ndark path we never wanted to go down in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAs\nmentioned above, riches also cause us to forget God. Nebuchadnezzar\nis the first that comes to my mind here. In Daniel 4:28-33, the king\nof Babylon bragged about how he had achieved his great empire,\ninsinuating that he had need no help in doing it. He had forgotten\nGod. Of course God punished him for it and Nebuchadnezzar learned\nhis place. We must remember that what we have is a gift from God\n(Ecclesiastes 2:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tMany\nwho are rich also reject God. Going back to Mark 10, the rich young\nruler came to Jesus seeking eternal life. From his youth he had kept\nthe law and was eager to know what else was needed. However, when\nJesus told him to sell what he had and give to the poor he went away\nsorrowful. As far as we know, he never came back to the Lord but\nclung to his possessions. Many are that way today. Though they\ncould be great help to the cause of Christ, the fear of either losing\ntheir possessions or the reluctance to stop their sinful practices to\nattain wealth keeps them back. Remember, God is more important than\nriches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tIt\nis not just God that our money takes us from but also our friends. \nIf we focus so much on work that we don’t have time for others, we\nlose all the friends who mean anything (Ecclesiastes 4:7, 8). Even\nif we have friends, the majority of them are \u201cfair weather\u201d\nfriends. As long as we have money, they stay with us but once things\nget hard, they turn their backs on us. A true friend who loves us is\nmore valuable than all the riches this world has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tOne\nfinal shortcoming of riches is their temporary nature. None of us\nare guaranteed to have our money and possessions the next day. Money\nshows no loyalty and goes from one person to the next and there are\nthose that forcefully take it from us. We need to remember the\neternal nature of God and that He is always near us. He never\nforsakes us even in our darkest hours and even delivers us from them.\n Why put our faith and give our love to something that feels nothing\nand cares for nothing when there is someone much more powerful that\ngives us everything, including wealth, and actually cares for us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAs\nChristians, we must keep our priorities in the proper place. Yes,\nmoney has its uses and it is not wrong to have it but in comparison\nto God and even the love of other people, money means nothing. It is\ntemporary and fleeting. Let us all strive to put God first and give\nHim thanks for the blessings we do have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Luke 12:20- But God said to him, \u2018Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?\u2019 We all like riches. It would not be a stretch I think to say that some love them. People all over the world seek to attain wealth for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}