“Do not store
up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and
steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The
eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be
full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the
other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve both God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of
the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you
by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry
about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or
spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was not
dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more
clothe you—you of little faith? So
do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly
Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do
not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:19-34
Someone has written this perspective
on the wealth/poverty/materialism issue:
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.
If you have never experienced the
danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the
pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed
than almost three billion people in the world.
If you have food in your
refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in
your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8%
of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still married
and alive, you are very rare, especially in the United States.
If you hold up your head with a
smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand,
hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.
If you can read this message, you
are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read
anything at all.
You are so blessed in ways you may
never even know.
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I think
this is the point Jesus was making about your attitude toward money and
materialism. Begin from the position of thankfulness and recognition of God, the
Source of your blessings. Unless you are grateful to your Father for what you have you will not be
satisfied with what else you get.
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