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| Do Your Things Own You
Matthew 19:23: Then said Jesus unto His disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Read also 19:16 through 20:16.
Devotional material is taken from Today With The King, written by Robert A. Cook. Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. Used with written permission.
I remember some of us kidding a friend who had just bought a nice new Chevy. We said, *That*s pretty carnal. You*re spending a lot of money. You should have put that money into missions.* We were giving him a bad time. He said very thoughtfully, *Well, I guess it all depends on whether you have things or whether things have you.* Pretty good comment, wouldn*t you say? Again and again our Lord Jesus pointed out how a person is motivated to use his money is an accurate index of where he stands with God. Only when God owns your money and the things it can buy and do for you--only when God controls that--will He also control your life. It*s very easy to envy someone*s success. It*s hard to pray, for instance, for a minister who has more people in his services than you have. Hard to pray for a Sunday School teacher whose class is bursting at the seams while you have difficulty getting new people in. Hard to pray for a person who can afford a new house or a new car or a new wardrobe for his wife, or all three for that matter, while you have difficulty meeting your monthly bills.
Small thought here. It*s easy, indeed very human, to envy other people and ask, *Lord, why do You bless him instead of me?* Often when you*re aware of another person*s faults, you wonder, *God, how can You bless him? Look what he just did!* But if Christ is going to be Lord over your substance, He will also have to be Lord of how much substance you have. Leave the *how much* to God, will you? And be at peace.
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