Money is magnificent.
What it gives us is freedom. Flat tire? No concern. We have money for another. Friends shortchange the pot at a restaurant? We have plenty to make up the difference.
The opportunity to be around people and not worry about the cost is an amazing opportunity to create memories poor people don’t have. Snow skiing? We can invite our friends. Beach houses? Rent one big enough for our extended family to come along. New York Yankees game? We can afford box seats for Bob, Frank, and everyone else!
As we said, money is magnificent. Not having it, however, can be equally momentous, though not always in a good way.
It’s not that money creates conflict in the world. It’s the frustration we feel when we don’t have money that drives us to do things that are detrimental to our physical, mental, and spiritual health
1 Timothy 6:9 tells us:
“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”
We have to desire money for the right reason.
1 Timothy 5:8 tells us:
“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
This verse tells us what our riches are all about. Love. Sharing. Doing for others. We can’t afford to save it all up for ourselves. We are meant to use it to do good for others.
Jesus spent his worldly riches sharing his lifeblood with us in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
To truly find the riches espoused in God’s Word, we need to take to heart 1 Corinthians 13:8:
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
There are riches, and then there are riches. One is made better by possessing the other. Jesus came to give us life everlasting, and he spent his life to give it to us.
After all, that’s what riches are for, to enrich others’ lives, and to show our love to those closest to us.
When we share our surplus with those at our side, we’re revealing the love of Christ that lives in our hearts.
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Code: FGO.K.02.15c.vp.esv