May I give my praise to God Almighty!
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
….The world and all its people belong to him.
2 For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
….and built it on the ocean depths. Psalm 24:1-2
Luke 12:13-21 (<<Flick here to read the passage)
Do you ever find it difficult to be content with what you have and where you find yourself in life? You can’t turn your TV on or listen to the radio or read a magazine or even scroll through your Facebook feed without being inundated! Buy this! Try that! You gotta have this doohickey! Don’t miss this great deal on this thingamabob! Anybody that is anybody has got one of these!
And the sad thing is enough is never enough!
Just today it came out that a leading legislator in Ohio was arrested for his involvement in a $60 million bribery scheme, along with four other individuals. According to a criminal complaint, more than $500, 000 was put into his personal accounts! Isn’t that crazy?!
We may not be guilty concerning those kinds of high-end stakes, but at some point in time, we all have to deal with greed.
Here is verse 15 from the Amplified Bible. Jesus said,
“Watch out and guard yourselves against every form of greed; for not even when one has an overflowing abundance does his life consist of nor is it derived from his possessions.”
Most who read this post are far from poor. We may not consider ourselves “rich” but that’s when we compare ourselves to the culture in which we live. The gross median household income in the United States is over $50,000 – that’s on average throughout the country. There are many countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia where their gross median household income is between $4,000-6,000 with many countries averaging less than $1,000 annually!
It seems that for many “keeping up with the Jones” is a lifetime goal!
My study Bible* says that greed is a desire for what we don’t have.
Our goal as followers of Jesus must be to deliberately tune out the pressure for more, more, more. No matter how many “things” we accumulate, in the long haul, none of them will bring lasting satisfaction. Only our relationship with Jesus and the effect it has on our lives and the lives of others will do that!
I love the music of Steven Curtis Chapman and one of his songs has come to mind a couple of times as I have written tonight. Listen to him sing, More to This Life. Here are the lyrics, too!
Today I watched in silence as people passed me by
And I strained to see if there was something hidden in their eyes;
But they all looked back at me as if to say
Life just goes on
The old familiar story told in different ways
Make the most of your own journey from the cradle to the grave;
Dream your dreams tomorrow because today
Life must go on
But there’s more to this life than living and dying
More than just trying to make it through the day;
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there’s more than this life alone can be
Tonight he lies in silence staring into space
And looks for ways to make tomorrow better than today
But in the morning light it looks the same;
Life just goes on
He takes care of his family, he takes care of his work
And every Sunday morning he takes his place at the church;
And somehow he still feels a need to search
But life just goes on
But there’s more to this life than living and dying
More than just trying to make it through the day;
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there’s more than this life alone can be
So where do we start to find every part
Of what makes this life complete;
If we turn our eyes to Jesus we’ll find
Life’s true beginning is there at the cross where He died
He died to bring us …
… more to this life than living and dying
More than just trying to make it through the day;
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there’s more than this life alone can be
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
July 21st, 2020, 9:18 pm
