Tag: Wealth

Morning Musing: Mark 8:36

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“For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? (CSB – Read the chapter)

We have been talking about how we can be good at being rich for the last three weeks. This verse, in context, doesn’t have anything to do with that at all. But what it does do is give us a perspective we can take to every part of our lives – including our wealth – that has the power to totally transform our thinking, and by that, our living. If you want to truly be rich – in this present age and any age beyond it – this is a perspective you need to consider embracing.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Chronicles 29:11-14

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“Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to you. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head over all. Riches and honor come from you, and you are the ruler of everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your own hand.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We all want control. We’re willing to fight pretty hard over it too. So many of the cultural fights and political fights we have in this country (and around the world, for that matter), come down to a matter of control. We want to feel like we are the master of our lives. We want to be the master of as many people around us as we can too. What we see here, though, is a reminder that there is another perspective on control that we would be wise to let inform our thinking a whole lot more than we often do. Let’s talk about what it is and how it can help us be rich.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 12:43-44

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“Summoning his disciples, he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had – all she had to live on.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had a perspective shift? Sometimes we get used to seeing things in one way, and never stop to think that there might be another way to look at them. Seeing things another way can bring a whole new world of understanding. Jesus and the disciples were observing a scene that everyone around them was accustomed to seeing in one way. He invited them to see things in a whole new light. Along the way, He gave us a new way to think about some things as well. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 30:7-9

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“Two things I ask of you; don’t deny them to me before I die: Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need. Otherwise, I might have too much and deny you, saying, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Last fall I saw the news that one of the largest PowerBall jackpots ever had been won by a single person. The total prize was just north of $2 billion. The lump sum prize payout was a shade less than $1 billion which seems like it would be a major letdown minus the fact that it is still more money than the vast majority of the world will ever see in their entire lifetime. No one wants to be poor. That’s part of why so many people play the lottery. Nearly all of them lose, of course, because the lottery is a game for people who can’t do math. (Unless your name is Jerry Selbee – this is worth a read – in which case just the opposite is true.) What we want instead, though, as amply demonstrated by the tens of millions of people who nonetheless bought tickets in hopes of winning this particular prize, is to be rich. But what if neither of these paths were the wisest to take through life? Let’s talk this morning about the wisdom of a third way.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Timothy 6:17

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“Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Are you rich? That’s an uncomfortable question to try to answer. The reason is that the answer has as much to do with feelings as it does actual economic reality. And, of course, no one wants to appear prideful in their wealth. There are some places with a sufficiently high amount of wealth per capita that someone who is economically impoverished in relative terms could go to a different place and live like royalty. The question, then, really isn’t so much one of whether or not you are rich (if you are reading this, you probably are), but of how to be rich well. Starting with some wisdom from Paul here, and with the direction of Pastor Andy Stanley, we are going to spend the next few weeks, Lord willing, talking about how we can be better at being rich. If being rich is something that is at all on your radar, you are not going to want to miss this.

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