Being Rich

He leads me …

From a Christian point of view there are two types of riches. Earthly riches and Heavenly riches. When we think of earthly riches we usually think of the expensive house in the exclusive neighbourhood. And then there are the things that go with them like the luxurious car and the lavish lifestyle.

These belongings are not sinful in themselves, but the attitudes of the owners can be. Having said this, there are Christian’s that the Lord blesses with wealth in order to provide for many of the countless big and small projects that He has on the go at any one time. However, to be successful at this both the earthly riches and heavenly riches should be prioritised the right way.

We will be familiar with the story in Matthew 19:16–30, where a rich young man loved his money more than God. The concern was not the young man’s wealth, but that he “treasured” his riches and did not want to “treasure” what he could have through Jesus instead. Jesus told the man to sell his possessions and give them to the poor, so that he would have treasure in Heaven. Then he would be free to follow the Lord. The young man chose to hold on to his earthly treasure which meant that he did not have any treasure in Heaven. He was unwilling to make Jesus his eternal treasure. And although the young man was very religious, Jesus exposed his heart to be full of greed.[1]

The other issue with having plenty of earthly riches is that they enable the people who have them to feel that they do not need God. Life is generally quite easy. They have a nice home, nice cars, nice clothes, nice food, and no debt. You get the idea.

We will remember the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20, Luke 8:4–15,:where Jesus explains that the Word of God is like seed scattered on different types of ground. In one case the seed falls among thorns, which is like the listeners hearing the Word, but they are overcome by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature as Christians. It is too easy to become gripped by earthly motivations and treasures rather than by God and His Word.

“Certainly, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people who have set their hearts on getting rich have wandered away from the Christian faith and have caused themselves a lot of grief.” (1 Timothy 6:10 GW[2])

The answer is just a few verses on in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 – “Tell those who are rich not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone, but their pride and trust should be in the living God who always richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give happily to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them. By doing this they will be storing up real treasure for themselves in heaven—it is the only safe investment for eternity! And they will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well. (TLB)  

When Christians live this kind of lifestyle exciting things can happen for both those who do god things with their money as well that those who benefit.

Cheri Gamble is a wife and mother of five boys. She has over 25 years of experience in church ministry. There were times when her family were in a tight situation financially, and the Lord provided. This not only blessed Cheri’s family, but also the givers as well.

God showed Cheri’s family that He cares about the smallest details in their lives when at one stage her husband was out of work, and as she puts it they “were beyond ‘broke’”. Cheri decided that they needed a little happiness in their day so she decided to bake a cake from what they had left in the cupboards. In doing this she used the last of the cocoa and flour. She had also put the last cake of soap that morning, replaced the last roll of toilet paper.

After they had finished dinner, they went to Wednesday night church. They had only enough petrol in their vehicle to get to church, but not to get back home. Both Cheri and her husband were teaching classes that night, Cheri had to lead worship practice, and the boys had Rangers.

After church had finished, a lady walked calmly up to Cheri and said, “Do you have enough gas to get home?” Cheri thought, “But only God knows about this”. Then, another lady came up to Cheri and said, “I need you to stop by my house on your way home from church tonight.” The family later called at the house as agreed. The lady met Cheri at the door and said, “I felt I needed to do this, but I’ve never had anything quite like this happen before. God told me to get these things together for you, and it is just a weird collection!”

The family went home and carried several bags of groceries into the house, and began to help unpack the bags. Their youngest said, “Mom, God gave us a miracle!” And He did. Not only did He give them petrol money to get home, and then some groceries as well, but among the items in the bags were a container of cocoa, some flour, two bars of soap, and some toilet paper! As Cheri said, “You can’t tell this lady God doesn’t care about every single detail of our lives, big and small!”

When it comes to giving, God can motivate all kinds of people to give as well.

Cheri’s husband is a pastor, and finance at one stage was very limited. Then their daughter had some health issues. They visited several doctors, including specialists, and as expected the medical bills were mounting up. There was no extra money to pay for them, and as a result one office automatically send one of their bills to a debt collectors. This meant that they had a record of the debt showing up on any future credit reports. It could take up to seven years for these records to be cleared, even if the debt is paid back, so the chances of getting a new loan were minimal during this period.

Cheri prayed and cried out to the Lord for help. The very next day she received a personal bill from the office of one of the doctors, with ‘Paid in Full’ written in handwriting. Cheri called the doctor’s office and a lady in the billing department said that Cheri’s letter was correct. The lady said that the funny thing about it was that the doctor had never done anything like this before. He had come in that morning, and told the lady to pull out Cheri’s medical bill. He told the billing lady that he was awakened in the night and told to do this. Cheri openly cried, and told the woman it was God answering her prayers. The lady agreed and told Cheri to pray for the doctor because he was not a believer.[3]

As Christians if we feel a prompt from the Lord to give to a person, family or organisation, we would do well to obey Him, because in doing so we could be His blessing into their lives at just the point that they need it most.

Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John

[1] How can we store up treasures in heaven? GotQuestions.org; https://www.gotquestions.org/treasures-in-heaven.html

[2] GOD’S WORD Translation. Produced in 1995 by God's Word to the Nations Bible Society, Cleveland, Ohio, the translation team was composed of members of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Their objective was to create a “closest natural equivalence” translation, consciously combining scholarly fidelity with natural English. The grammar is simplified; the style is informal; and sentences are shorter and less complicated than other versions. GOD’S WORD Translation is now published by God’s Word to the Nations Mission Society.

[3] All These Things: Testimonies of God’s Provision, Cheri Gamble, Cheri Gamble.com

https://cherigamble.com/2014/11/18/all-these-things-testimonies-of-gods-provision/