PRAISE PROMPT ••• My husband and I met with our financial advisor last week.
Thankfully, our advisor is such a nice guy, I can overlook the fact that we’re discussing one of my least favorite topics.
Wayne and I both value and respect his input as we make plans for our financial future.
But as we discussed on Thursday, you can’t take it with you.
Money will never offer eternal security, though many treat money as if it offers exactly that.
Now, let me make this point very clear before I go any further.
There’s nothing wrong with wealth.
But if that’s all a person has to feel secure, then they have nothing.
The only true security comes from a relationship with Jesus.
I read Proverbs 11:16 this morning, which says, “A gracious woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth.”
The words that I want to highlight today are “only wealth.”
We don’t hear that very often, do we?
Every now and then, you may hear, “it’s only money,” but the words and the emotions don’t generally line up with each other.
“Only wealth” doesn’t matter in eternity.
In Matthew 19, Jesus had a discussion with a rich man who wanted to know how to go to heaven.
In verse 21, “Jesus told him, ’If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’”
If you know the rest of the story, you know the rich man walked away, despondent.
Jesus continued in verse 24, “I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus wasn’t saying it was wrong for the man to have money.
He was saying when money is more important than God, at that point, it’s “only wealth.”
It will never offer the Heavenly security He presented to the rich man in His unaccepted challenge.
At the end of our lives, it will not matter what our material possessions are – we all go out with the same thing.
Nothing.
There is an exception though.
When we believe in Jesus and have trusted in Him, we leave this world for the eternal security that we spent all our lives searching for…
That’s the treasure waiting for us in heaven.
I’ve written this before, but a reminder.
The gold we value here on earth – that our monetary system is based on – is used to pave streets in heaven.
I don’t know many people who covet the concrete we currently use in road construction and maintenance, do you?
This should demonstrate the eternal significance of the gold so many chase in this lifetime.
Today, let’s praise God that though He allows us to have money and it’s important, it’s only wealth in comparison to the everlasting security and treasure we have in Jesus Christ!
