He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. Ecclesiastes 5:10 ESV
When you are in your twenties, you see the things that people have, and you say One day, I’m going to have some of that good stuff. When you are in your thirties or forties, you start to get some of that good stuff. When you reach fifty, you get some of that really good stuff. When you are in your sixties, you start to get rid of that good stuff. In your seventies, you begin to forget where you put your good stuff. When you are in your eighties, you become a little confused, and you start to take other people’s good stuff. As you continue to age, you lose all your short-term memory, but you can remember perfectly events that took place sixty or seventy years ago. Then you realize that the only truly important things are your memories of family and friends, and foremost, your relationship with God. You finally conclude that good stuff is highly overrated.
A biblical viewpoint about possessions needs to be balanced. God blesses us with things to use and enjoy, 1 Timothy 6:17 ESV, but never enough to worship them. You cannot serve both God and money, as Matthew 6:24 ESV states. You will hate the one and love the other, or vice versa. The question is, do you have things, or do they have you? Anything that rivals your relationship with God is an idol. Idols always, eventually disappoint us. The more you have, the more you must have. John D. Rockefeller, the wealthiest man in the world in the early nineteen hundreds, was asked How much money do you need? His reply was, “Just a little more.”
The happiest people on earth are those who have accepted their station in life and the possessions that God has provided for them. Godliness with contentment is great gain, Timothy 6:6 ESV. They know that when they get to heaven, they will get that really good stuff.
The image is used by permission from Microsoft.
Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing and Broken Vessels through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Ken’s Website— https://kenbarnes.us/
Ken blogs at https://kenbarnes.us/blog/
Email- [email protected]
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