April 5
Deuteronomy 7-8
Psalm 40:11-17
Proverbs 10:12-14
Luke 7:1-23
Power and Riches
“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 8:17-20 NIV
In the culture we live in, we are encouraged to work hard, pay our own way, and do whatever it takes to get ahead. We work long hours, and even put in overtime to provide for our family. We instill this mentality into our children as well. We fill every waking minute with sports, school, homework, dance, gymnastics, boy scouts, etc. We work and strive and stress to get more and more and more stuff. We want the best house, the newest car, and the latest fashions. We do whatever it takes to make sure our kid is the best basketball player on the team, the smartest girl in her class, or the prettiest toddler in a tiara. But at what cost? Families are falling apart, staggering numbers of children and adults are on antidepressants or anxiety medications, drugs and alcohol are being used at alarming rates to help people escape from their everyday lives. Self-help books line the shelves of bookstores, and it is difficult to get an appointment with therapists because they are booked weeks in advance. We have bought into the message of this verse. We believe that our power and the strength of our hands has produced whatever we have so we must keep working harder and harder to maintain it. Let me interject here that I believe that hard work is a good thing, and we should not sit around and let others work to pay our way. That is not what this is about. What this passage is telling us is that we must never forget that God is the one who deserves the praise and thanksgiving for any accomplishments we may have. He created us and it is His blessing on our life that provides all that we need. We are utterly dependent on Him for our very lives and if we forget this, we will face the consequences. Pride and self-reliance are very dangerous. The secret to finding fulfillment and joy in our lives is not in getting more wealth and power. It is in finding balance and ordering our lives around His priorities instead of our worldly desires and passions. The gods of power, wealth, status, popularity, and fame are just as destructive to us today as the gods Baal and Ashtoreth were to the Israelites. If we bow down to them, we will suffer the consequences.
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