Are We Using Wealth Or Are We Being Used By Wealth?

Very interesting that the wisdom verses for me today talks about our attitude for wealth. Are we using wealth or are we being used by wealth?

Proverbs 23:4-5

v4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.

v5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

And my daily devotion (Ecclesiastes 2 & 3) talks about the futility of our daily struggles to amass wealth and fame with our own strengths. King Solomon (who wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and a couple of psalms) found in the later part of his life that whatever he had achieved will no longer remain his after his demise, nor will they belong to his children or grandchildren if they do not obey the Lord.

So often people of the world struggle to build their fortunes and acquire fame but they fail to realize that what they did achieve will in the end be lost when the Lord is absent in their lives. We need to realize that the most important component of our life is to be at peace in the Lord. When we are completely at peace with our Lord Jesus, health and wealth will hunt us down - the Righteousness of Christ will envelope us and attract the blessings of God into our lives.

Jesus himself taught His disciples that they (and we are also included as His audience) "cannot serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matthew 6:24). When man serve Money (or wealth) he will be so consumed with that passion that he will forgo all else in order to get what he set out to receive even to the extent of his physical well-being. How sad to find people who spend the first forty years of their lives to get wealth but had to give back this wealth later to retrieve their health in the second half of their lives.

So which category would you rather be in? Love the Lord or to serve Money? As for me and my house, we would rather love and serve the Lord.