“Spend Spend Spend”, the famous words of a British woman in the 1960s who won today’s equivalent of 3 Million pounds! That is certainly what she did, and quite literally until it was all gone!
We live in a society that is encouraged to live beyond its means. Credit is freely available to all no matter what credit rating you have. Images on advertisements, television etc all show us how we are meant to live, and show us the possessions we are meant to own to be fulfilled in life. Perfumes that will attract the perfect man, designer jewellery that will make you look rich and prosperous, holidays to far off locations, the latest model of car you just have to own. The list is endless!
In this passage of scripture, Jesus is talking to the crowd when a man who’s brother had inherited a fortune, asks Jesus to get his brother to share it. Jesus responded;
14Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
We can’t add true value to our lives with possessions! That perfume will not attract the “perfect” man, and that car will not satisfy us. Possessions are simply our way of trying to make ourselves feel better. If they could truly satisfy, then we would be content with the ones we have and would not feel the need to stretch ourselves for the next big thing.
Jesus goes on to tell a parable about a rich man who has a good crop one year. So he decides to build bigger barns to store everything for himself. The God tells him he will die that night! This was simply to highlight the fact the possessions are useless to a man who is about to die also! You have heard the old saying
“You can’t take it with you”.
Well its true. Your car won’t go to heaven with you! Instead we need to be storing up our treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20)! For when we arrive we will reap the blessings of those treasures for eternity as our earthy treasures will be no more.
By living our lives to glorify the Risen Lord, being generous, loving, patient and kind, by telling others of His
saving grace, spending time with the Lord in prayer and the Word, through fellowship with other Christians we can build up lasting treasures in heaven that we will enjoy when we meet the Lord one day. Not only that, but by doing these sorts of things during our time of this earth, we will feel fulfilled, satisfied and no longer thirsting for the things of the world that are temporary
but seeking after what is eternally His.
