ARE YOU REALLY WEALTHY?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.

Proverbs 10:22, 13:7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

NOTE: From Proverbs, Chapter 10 through Chapter 22:16, Solomon writes a series of individual proverbs for us to consider. I will try and group similar proverbs in my devotions as I cover what Solomon wrote over these chapters.

NOTE 2: My oldest daughter Stephanie has premiered her own blog titled, “Live By Philippians 4:13”. Her first post is “Lighting the Way” and I invite you to check it out and leave her encouragement as she answers the call of the Lord on her heart and follows in Dad’s footsteps which is indescribably exciting for me. Here’s the link: http://livebyphillipians413.blogspot.com/

How do you see yourself when it comes to the matter of wealth?

Maybe you see yourself well off with plenty of money to do whatever you want and a hefty savings and investing portfolio behind it as backup just in case you need it.

Maybe you are making it but it’s a week to week adventure to meet your budget. Your head is above water and you are trying to scratch out what you can to save but it’s not as much as you would like to have. You look forward to a day when you might not have to struggle so much and live in comfort and peace having all you need and more.

Or maybe you are wondering where your next dollar is going to come from. You are struggling just to meet your basic needs and find you have to do everything you can to stretch every dollar. Your bills don’t always get paid on time and when the phone rings, you fear it’s another collection person calling. You yearn to be in a place where you can easily pay for your obligations and maybe have a little money to save or even do something fun. You never get to do that now.

Most everybody fits into one of these three categories when it comes to evaluating where they stand when it comes to wealth or in the latter case, poverty.

But what if the poor are really wealthy and the wealthy really poor?

Huh? Seriously, in your circumstances, are you really wealthy or really poor?

You see, as we see over and over and over again, the Bible has a way of turning the world’s standards upside down. Look at the two proverbs from Solomon:

The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it. Proverbs 10:22

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. Proverbs 13:7

Solomon, providing the wisdom of the Lord, shows us the proper way to look at wealth. For it isn’t a worldly perspective that matters but rather a spiritual one.

The Lord blesses anyone who seeks Him and this doesn’t require a lot of effort or as Solomon puts it, painful toil. Those who are faithful to the Lord and serve Him in obedience are rich beyond the world’s standards. And if they are seemingly poor in the world’s eyes, they can be exceedingly rich in the eyes of the Lord – and that’s all that really matters.

Conversely, a person could seem to be wealthy with a mansion, garage full of luxury vehicles, and significant monetary worth but in reality be impoverished in the Lord’s sight because they have chose to love their money more than they love Him. You’ll remember that Jesus told us we can’t serve two masters. We have to choose between God and money (Matthew 6:24).

So the question stands today – are you really wealthy?

The real answer to the question is found in your relationship with the Lord God Almighty, the only One who can truly make you abundantly rich now and forever.

Where do you stand today?

Amen. 

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to ourchristianwalk@aol.com