Riches

           Acquiring a lot of material things can present a problem to some people. With others, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. There was a man I knew a number of years ago named Harold Stevens. Harold was a former missionary that would go around speaking to different churches about their mission program. Harold had a deep heart for missions around the world and would give everything he had to missions. He was given a Mercedes to drive around from church to church but the owner said that he would not give Harold the title to the Mercedes because Harold would sell it and give the money to missions. That was just the way Harold was. He practiced what he preached and would often comment that America spends more on dog food than it does on world missions and that the whole mission effort was being funded by just 4 percent of church people. We have a tendency to be both rich and still do a little bit for God here and there. Matthew 19:21-22 says, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”

       The rich young man asked the question of the Lord Jesus Christ of what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. However, when Jesus answered his question he walked away, sad at the answer he had received. Jesus touched the real issue in the young man's life. Wealth was important to him. It was so important that he would rather forfeit eternal life than to do the one thing that Jesus said for him to do. He was instructed to sell all that he had, give the money to the poor and then to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. At least the passage says that he was sorrowful but that wasn't going to stop him from walking away from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We find that in Second Corinthians 8 and 9 that there are about 24 guidelines for giving. Right at the beginning of the list is that a person needs to first give their own selves to the Lord. Second Corinthians 8:4 says, “And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.  The rich man failed to do this. God was not as important to him as was his wealth. For the believer, God is the most important; even more important than everything that he has accumulated. There is not one possession that you will take with you to heaven. You can be buried in your Mercedes but your spirit will go back to God Who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). We often feel that by giving 10% of our income to God, that we are relieved of our responsibility for spreading the Gospel message around the world but God often requires more and you will know when God pricks your heart with a project that you can help achieve. So praise God for all that He has given to you and remember that it all belongs to Him and that you are just the steward of it while you are here on earth.