DaySpring Daily Word of Inspiration: Proverbs 15:16 – Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil.
Welcome back from the holiday weekend. Hope your time was filled with fun, food, safety and relaxation. Although we took a small break here to enjoy as well, our prayers are that you didn’t stop looking to apply God’s principles to your life – even if it were a holiday or not. With that being said, let’s get back to our devotionals for the inspiration of God to freshly fall upon our hearts, minds and spirit.
When we’re being raised in this world or in this day and age, the emphasis is on making sure that we obtain a certain level of education. This education in turn should yield the benefits of stability. Stability in family living, career, home, assets and the like. For most of us our stability equals how much money we have at our disposal. It becomes a driving force in our desire to measure achievement and success in our lives. It’s consuming and repositions our focus from what matters to what not so much matters. Although this could be a goal, it shouldn’t be our primary focus in life.
The assumption most people have or allude to is that if you’re going to live your life for Christ, you have to be broke, in despair, afflicted and brokenhearted all the days of your life! LOL! Hilarity!!!! This is just another misconception that keeps people from making the transition from the physical to the spiritual mindset of living a Christian lifestyle. We must remember, God isn’t concerned with the “things” of this world – he made them all and could destroy them just as easily. What he is concerned with is what is going on in the heart; the inside of us, not what we have on the outside. Another funny point is how people assume because you have money; all of your problems go away. I can tell you this; it doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, black or white, sick or healthy, YOU WILL HAVE PROBLEMS!!! The question becomes: 1) how many problems do you want? 2) how big will your problems be? & 3) how much life is being drained from you because of your problems? All of our problems are relative to our own situations. If you’re poor, you’ll have poor people problems. If you’re rich you’ll have rich people problems.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “More money, more problems”. I think we miss the point that this statement is blatantly telling us – with wealth comes more problems!!! And let us be clear here! It’s not the wealth (money) that becomes the problem, it’s the focus, attention, and lengths we go to in keeping it that becomes or causes the problems… In the grand scheme of it all, it removes our focus from God, it puts our attention on material things and it shifts the perception of power in our hearts and minds – making it difficult for God’s word to make you believe or show you how much you need him. Why? Because you have everything you want, need or that money can buy! That’s the biggest problem of all; your soul is in danger!!!!
Fortunately for us all, there is provision in God’s word! As today’s passage suggests it’s not just having fewer resources that helps us be more in tune with God, it’s a combination of that and a healthy fear of the Lord. The same might be said about a rich person. If there is wealth and the fear of God, problems have different meaning; a lesser affect, because the focus isn’t on the problem per se but on what God can do no matter what my situation is. If I give my problem over to God in reverence of his power, I take the stress out of wondering if things are going to be ok because he will do the best thing for me – rich or poor.
Today our prayer is that we understand that there will be trouble in this life but with fewer distractions we have which take our more focus off of God, equals less turmoil we’ll experience no matter if we’re rich or poor. Don’t allow the enemy to keep you busy, occupied or concern with “stuff”. Fear the Lord our God and be content with whatever he gives you. Think of it like this, he may not have given you a lot because he knows the more you have, the further you would grow away from him! God loves you that much. Thank you God, in Jesus’ name, AMEN!