WEALTH’S LURE

How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! —Luke 18:24

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” —Luke 12:16-21

Those who are wealthy have the tendency to be consumed by their riches. I remember reading about billionaire Adolf Merckle. He committed suicide by stepping in front of a train http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/recession/4210246/Adolf-Merckle-what-made-this-German-billionaire-commit-suicide.html. Why did such a wealthy man do this? “His companies were his life and when he was going to lose control of them he obviously felt he would lose control of his life, that is the only way I can see it,” said Ernst Junger, a friend in Blaubeuren.” His personal fortune was over 12 billion dollars! His riches consumed him, controlled him. This is a very sad commentary.

Then we look at the evilness of ISIS. What drives this group? Well, there are many factors, but one of them is the desire for wealth. Look where there is evil and as someone has said then “follow the money trail.” Corruption… “follow the money trail.” Drug dealing… “follow the money trail.” God’s Word is very clear and to the point on this—“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (I Timothy 6:10).

When riches are a person’s god, then they will not typically call on the Lord in repentance for salvation (Luke 18:18-23). But, what is impossible for people is possible with God (Luke 18:27) and there are some wealthy people who are faithfully serving the Lord. Regardless of how much wealth we have or do not have, may we faithfully serve the Lord Jesus.

Dear Father, I thank You for Your graciousness to me. May I be a faithful steward with the responsibility You have delegated to me that I would honor Your Name.