Some people think money will solve all a person’s problems. But we
don’t have to look beyond the Word of God to see how off base that line of
thinking is. Nebuchadnezzar was king and super wealthy; and yet he had problems
– to the point that he ended up living “in the fields with the wild animals,
and” eating “grass like a cow” (Daniel 4:32, NIV).
John the Baptist was chosen by God to preach the Good News of the
coming of the Messiah and yet he “was clothed in camel’s hair… and his food was
locusts and wild honey” Matthew 3:4, NIV). John’s outfit wasn’t making a
fashion statement and there’s no mention of his having a donkey to ride or a
home or anything else. Being a servant of God didn’t make him rich in worldly
wealth.
John had “little” when it came to material possessions; but what he
had in abundance was “the fear of the Lord,” a holy reverence for the One who
had created him and called him as His servant. John knew the truth of what
Jesus taught in Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34: “where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also” (NIV). John’s focus was not on this world. John’s
“treasure” was not in this world. John was looking to heaven with eternity in
his heart and spirit.
The Onassis family was some of modern history’s richest people. Yet
shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis’s son Alexander died in a plane crash in
1973; Ari’s first wife Athina Livanos Onassis committed suicide shortly thereafter;
and Ari himself died in 1975. The remaining heir, Christina, was a lonely and
unhappy young woman who went through four disastrous marriages and died in 1988
at the age of 37, purportedly from extended abuse of prescription drugs. Money
didn’t “fix” any of their problems and mostly exacerbated them.
As The Beatles once sang, “Money can’t buy [you] love.” Nor can it
buy happiness. The only real happiness is found in a life surrendered to Jesus.
“If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have
that money can’t buy.” (unknown authorship)
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