Good Morning Friends,
“Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase,
so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to
feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little
or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep. I have seen a
grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, or wealth
lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left
for him. Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he
departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.”
(Ecclesiastes 5:10-15)
“He who dies with the most toys wins.” So the
saying goes. It’s wrong! The man who dies with great wealth and the man who dies
penniless both take the same amount with them beyond the grave -- nothing! If
the purpose you pursue in life is to accumulate wealth, you have chosen a futile
pursuit.
Solomon mentions several reasons why the
pursuit of wealth is an unworthy pursuit.
A person who makes the pursuit of wealth his
goal will never have enough wealth to be satisfied. There is always more that
can be sought.
The more a person accumulates, the more he
has to take care of. Vast wealth brings vast responsibility to protect it and
make decisions about it.
The more wealth a person has, the more
worries he has, too. The poor man can go to sleep with few things to worry
about, but the rich man stews over all the things that can take away what he
has accumulated.
The accumulation of wealth brings the
temptation to the owner to hoard it for his own selfish reasons.
Wealth is not meant to be accumulated,
hoarded, and worried over. It is meant to be enjoyed and used in the ways God
desires us to use what He has entrusted to us. Recognize that what we gather
while on earth does not belong to us. It belongs to God and is given to us in
trust to use for His purposes. Pursue wealth for its own value and you pursue
that which is worthless. Understand that wealth is a trust from God and it can
bring great joy and satisfaction in using what He has given to please Him.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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