continuing on the theme of true riches from earlier this week and the real eternal life to come, here is a Pulpit Magazine entry from John MacArthur on putting your hope in money.
As we have all seen in the last couple of weeks, money can melt away pretty quickly. That account that I was counting on to help put my kids through college has taken a brutal hit along with the others. I bring it up because I am going to need it sooner.
Does this kind of financial crisis shake your faith? Should it? here is John MacArtur’s quote from Proverbs:
A very real danger facing American Christians is the temptation to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. To base their hope on the uncertainty of riches, instead of God, is foolish. Proverbs 11:28 warns that “he who trusts in his riches will fall.” Proverbs 23:4–5 adds, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”
and here is the instruction from Matthew:
The highest form of joy for the believer is to bring glory to the Lord. True gladness, then, comes when believers give heed to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:19–21:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Later, in that same passage, Jesus gives the command three times not to be anxious (vv. 25, 31, 34). When we trust in God rather than riches, we have no reason to worry.
do you believe that last bit? trusting God results in no reason to worry? Why not?