DO NOT (PART 7) – YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU

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In Christ, Mark

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

Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Proverbs 23:4-5          

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

NOTE: Will be at sea for the next two weeks and may be off the grid. If I can post, I will. If not, I will begin posting again as soon as I get to where I have connectivity.

I remember early on in my Navy career. I was so driven to be successful that I was blind to almost anything else in life, including my family. If only I had been less centered on myself and more centered on the things that should have been most important to me. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to go through a divorce in my life.

Yes, that happened. I’m not proud to say that by any means but I have found that it’s necessary to bring out my own mistakes in order to hopefully prevent someone else from erring the same way.

Of course, the main issue was not just my blindness toward the important things in my life. It was my blindness to the Lord and His word, way, and will. If I had only allowed Him to guide me instead of trusting my own judgment and intellect, I believe to this day that the outcome would have been different. Unfortunately, there aren’t “do overs” in life. We can’t go back like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day” and live parts of our life again. No, we make our mistakes and we are forced to live with the consequences of our errors. Some can be minor, others can be very major.

Had I been more focused on the word of God, I’m certain that the Holy Spirit would have led me to the two verses today from Proverbs, Chapter 23, two verses that compose the eighth of thirty “Sayings of the Wise” that Solomon states during the scriptures found between verse 17 of Chapter 22 through Chapters 23 and 24. Look again at these verses now:

Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Proverbs 23:4-5

As with the six prior devotions, we find a seventh “do not” caution within these two verses:

“Do not wear yourself out to get rich or trust in your own cleverness”

Riches are fleeting and so we aren’t supposed to wear ourselves out pursuing them. Ditto for anything else that might be a treasure of earth like materialism or success or stature. Our Savior Jesus also had something to say about this matter during His first major teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount. Here’s what He had to say:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

The command of Christ is clear here, another “do not” directive of the highest order. “DO NOT” store up treasures on earth. Instead, store up treasures in heaven, treasures that are eternal and can never be taken or fade away.

In essence, Jesus is saying this:

Do not store up things that have no chance of persevering the test of time. In other words, there will be a day when you will be called away from the earth and when that happens, you will not be able to take anything along with you. This is why we are to spend less of our time focusing on the physical, tangible things of the world and instead invest our time in storing up the treasures we find in righteousness and holiness, the qualities we gain by placing the highest emphasis in life on becoming more and more like Jesus.

After all, isn’t that what being a Christian is all about?

Praise be to God that I discovered this in my own life, albeit too late to restore what was already destroyed. At least the Lord blessed me with a second chance to marry and make good on my past mistakes. I can proudly say the end result of that second chance has been more than 21 years married to my beautiful, wonderful wife Grace, a true gift of God to me. Together, Grace and I continuously seek to glorify and magnify the Lord Jesus, following His will and way and life. In turn, He leads us to fulfill His purposes, all along storing up those prescribed treasures in heaven.

I pray today that you are doing likewise. If not, today is the day to commit yourself anew to a different direction, away from the treasure of earth and toward the treasures of heaven found through a fully committed relationship with the One who by far our greatest treasure, the greatest gift God ever gave us, His Son and our Savior, the Lord of lords and King of kings, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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