Christians are not meant to possess an unhealthy desire for riches as this can easily distract us from God's higher purpose for our lives. The widespread lure and lust after personal gain is a prominent undercurrent in our culture and in all modern and developing nations.
It can be even more cutthroat in developing nations as well.Money seems like the most important thing for many people. Many people are ceaselessly trying to satisfy their desires with more and more stuff.
Lust by nature is never satisfied. The novelty of satiating it with new things is never enough, the satisfaction only lasts a while before it's over and after a while we move on to our next fix. It's like a monster with an endless appetite.
We think that if only I get this new thing, then I will be happy: if only I had a more attractive partner, if only I had a nicer car, if only I got that promotion etc, but at the end of the day these will only bring temporary satisfaction.
If we can't find happiness and contentment now, in something that is higher and more permanent, then we will never be happy even after acquiring all our superficial wants.
I find my satisfaction most in God, friends and family, and it's interesting how Jesus suggested that the most important commandments revolved around loving God first and then our neighbours as ourselves.
We live in a world where most people are misguided about what is important in life. They believe that having more money, power, recognition, fame, sex-partners etc will fulfil them --but only drinking from the wellspring of life can fulfil us.
Looking beyond
That's one of the most important lessons in life - looking beyond the interests and preoccupations of worldly people, seeing these for the shallow distractions that they are, and realising that our relationship with God is so much more valuable, and satisfying than temporary worldly gain.
Once we have this as a linchpin for our lives, we can begin toto appreciate all the good things we do have, as gifts from Him for our enjoyment.
Another pitfall is pride and envy. Many people are motivated and obsessed with acquiring wealth, status etc stemming from the need to be seen and recognised by others. Wealth or position simply become a means to enhance their status in the view of others.
They want to impress with their wealth or position to solicit the praise or admiration of other people – this is exactly what Lucifer did, and he got carried away in his grandiose sense of self-importance.
The furthest point in this is a form of self-worship, instead of worshipping objects that we covet and desire, someseek to elevate themselves instead.
There's nothing wrong with having good things or being in a position of authority. It's just our motivations and attitude behind it all. All prosperity and success is a fruit of godly hard-work, diligence, wisdom, learning and most of all good values.
And when we do all things for the glory of God we can avoid these pitfalls and traps, and use our blessings and gifts to further the Kingdom and bless others.
Amos Sale grew up in Auckland and recently moved to Wellington to assist his girlfriend with her youth ministry. Amos enjoys learning about history, politics, philosophy and biology and he likes sci-fi and action movies. Amos has a passion to defend the Christian worldview and value system against its enemies and detractors by any means he can, and to encourage others to seek out an experiential encounter with God. He is recently been engaged.
Amos Sale's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/amos-sale.html