Saturday 21 Jul 2012

Saturday Reading: 1 Timothy 6:17-21

Key Verse: 1 Timothy 6:17
17  Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

Devotion:
At a time when most people are finding life very difficult with the world economy being on the brink of collapse, there are some who are still making a whole lot of money – you may ask what are they doing with it and most of us would be hard pressed to find a viable answer! But money is not everything. Money is not what is required to pull this world out of its situation! The more that people focus on the money instead of what is needed, the more people will become entrapped in this love for money that God’s Word tells us is the root of evil!

When we focus on the earthly things such as money, we lose focus on the heavenly things such as eternal life. When we concentrate on digging for gold we lose out on all the precious things in life that pass us by while our heads are buried in the sand. God wants our primary focus to be on Him and not on the things of this world. As long as we do look to Him and to His ways then we will find out what is best for us and what can make us happier than any earthly riches.

No matter how entrenched we become in worldly matters we will never find out about the things of heaven and the things that God wants in our lives. No matter how many resources we push into what we do on earth, they will count as nothing compared to those few resources we give to God and His work. It is not the riches of earth that will give us eternal happiness because they lack certainty and lack finality. God does not want us to throw the earth away because He did make it for us. He wants us to be able to live in this world in happiness and in comfort and the best way to do that is going to be to follow His will in our lives and stop following the earthly greed and lust that we have become so used to.

God’s ways are perfect and eternal. Our ways are corrupt and short-lived. To build anything that is going to last, we have to build on a firm foundation. The earth may look like a firm foundation but man has proven beyond all doubt that it falls apart as soon as we corrupt things; so building on what we think is firm is not always the right plan. Building on what we should know is firm (God’s Word) is the right way forward, but not always the easiest for us to accept. Leaving earthly ways behind may be difficult when we cannot see what God has in store for us; but we do need to have faith that He does know what we need and that He will supply what we need!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like trusting in others?

How much do you trust God?