It seems that everyone in the past was trying to make an honest buck. Of late, that honest buck has turned in to a fast buck. Scams and other means of gaining that money have come about to get that money deceitfully. That money will not last.
"Wealth [not earned] but won in haste, or unjustly, or from the production of things for vain or detrimental use, [such riches] will dwindle away; but he who gathers little by little will increase them." Proverbs 13:11, Amplified
What is trying o be conveyed here is that an unjust or hasty gain of fortune will not last. I am talking about the up and coming star who finds himself in a lot of cash. One who did not have has no idea how to handle the fortune. Parties, drugs, booze, women is how the fortune dwindles away. I know this because I have a friend who did this. Lance Kerwin became famous from his hit television show, James at 15. He was also in the Steven King film, Salem's Lot. Fortune overtook Lance, and he became a user and an abuser, he lost it all. Lance landed in a rehab facility where I happened to be. Now he is a youth pastor in Temecula, California.
But if you take someone like Donald Trump, who gained his vast fortune little by little understands how to deal with the money that they have received. If someone knows how to save a $100, then the know how to save $1,000. If they know how to save $1,000 then they know how to save $500,000.
The Lord wants us to be good stewards of what we have. If we are faithful in little, He will entrust us with more. This is not to say that He will give us $500,000. Be a good steward of the money that you have. Save a little, spend less and that nest egg will begin to grow. This is not a theological concept, it is economical. The Lord uses the logical things of this world to bless His children. Does He want us to be rich? Maybe. But for now, be faithful to Him with what you already have and not with what you want.
You're kidding, right?!
ReplyDeleteWhy would I be kidding?
ReplyDeleteYou know I have been thinking about this anonymous comment for some time now and it has been bothering me. I feel that quite possibly I did not convey the thought I wanted to and may have been misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteI do not in any way feel that money is evil. I do not feel that being rich negates entrance into heaven. "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil..." (I Timothy 6:10, NKJV) Money itself is not bad or evil. If the Lord has seen fit to place a large sum of money in your charge, then all the more blessing to you.
The point that I wanted to make in this devotion is that money opens the door for the human heart to trust in something else other than the Lord. In the story of the Rich Young Ruler, a young man approaches Jesus and asks how he can get into heaven. Jesus gives him a list of things to de. The young man proudly boasts that he had already done all these things. Jesus then instructed the young man to "sell all that you have and distribute to the poor." (Luke 18:22, NKJV) Jesus, seeing how upset the young man had become when he had heard what needed to be done Jesus said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of of God." (Luke 18:24, NKJV) The Lord wants us to completely rely on him.
I hope that I have answered anonymous' concern for my post. (If indeed this is what you thought I might have been kidding about.