Our world is full of “things” and “stuff” – that is possessions. We have an inbuilt desire to possess things. We find ourselves eager for possessions and for all that money promises and provides but if we are not careful, we find ourselves trusting money to buy us life, and our lives are governed more and more by the pursuit of possessions. This is a trap.
There are many things money can’t buy for us, and there are some things that money will actually take from us.Take the successful farmer in the bible (Luke 12:13-34) that Jesus talked about for instance. Possessions we have are his reward for astute business and hard work so far so good. Prosperity had bought him security, freedom and easy living. But his possessions had blinded him to his mortality – he had given no thought to his inevitable demise and what would happen to his possessions when he was gone.
Possession had so fixed his eyes on earth that he had no vision of Heaven. Earth was his Heaven but shortly he would have to leave it. They day soon dawned when he realized that his neglect of the eternal in the pursuit of the temporal had guaranteed his ultimate.Jesus told this story about the successful farmer to a man who was more interested in winning a battle with his brother over his father’s last will and testament than in listening to what Jesus was teaching. As they say, “where there is a will, there is a quarrel.” But Jesus would not be drawn into the argument (Luke 12:14) instead, he preferred to make a powerful point. “Real life is not measured by how much we own” (Luke 12::15).
What then is real life about? It is about knowing we come from God, we live through God and we will return to God. So we should love him en route, living trustingly and obediently. Real life is about having “rich relationship with God (Luke12:21).If the pursuit of possessions purchased with profits in the essence of our existence, a man’s life is measured by what he owns.
Mammon becomes man’s god. He is owned by his money and possessed by his possessions.So what to do? We should accept possessions gladly, hold them lightly, use them wisely, share them unselfishly, and offer them worshipfully to God for His use. The quality of a man’s life is seen in how well he handles things rather then letting things handle him.
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