August 26th
AUGUST 26th
Luke 12:13-23 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.”
The point of this is not to say that possessions are bad. The point is to keep them in perspective. Our lives must have eternal perspective so that we don’t invest ourselves and our time (or money) into things that are not important. As we said yesterday, we don’t know how much time we have left so we must make our priorities line up with God’s. We have to be generous toward God and His causes/plans. It is interesting if you read the Gospels (look at the first part of Matthew 6) Jesus says WHEN you give to the needy, not IF you give to the needy. We need to prayerfully ask the Lord to show us to who and when we are to be generous with our resources (time and money and talents.) He promises rewards in heaven from our Father God.
God’s economy is totally different than ours. He says by being generous here, we are storing up treasures in Heaven. This is not the way the world thinks so we have to keep ourselves in check so we don’t slip in to that rut. We also can’t consider whether we think someone deserves to be given anything. Only God knows their hearts or His plan so we have to be so very careful to consult the Holy Spirit regarding our giving.
Bottom line is that we should be generous with our resources as God directs and seek treasures in Heaven instead of here. We do this by seeking Him first.
Matthew 6:19-21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:33-34 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Jesus thank you for wanting to bless me. Thank you for making it possible to for me to store up treasures in Heaven. Help me to keep that in mind when I start to seek treasures here on earth. Help me to be generous with what you have given me, forgive me for when I have been selfish. Help me to seek you first and your plan instead of mine. Thank you for your patience and love.