Wealth

This matter has been on my mind for a while. Sometimes when the message from the pulpit is about blessings especially in relation to wealth, some of us, or I at least, feel a little uncomfortable. Don't know why it's so, maybe my faith is not big enough to accept it. Or maybe my mind just refuses to deny the many examples I've been taught about money in the past.

I have no doubt that God blesses His people richly when he sees fit, and I don't deny I would love the comforts of wealth, but why should I actively ask God for material blessings?

Starting in the old testament, all the richest men around never did ask for wealth, as far as I know. Abraham (he was faithful, & God's friend), David (he was a man after God's heart), Solomon (he asked for wisdom), Job (he never cursed God in his poverty), all these people got wealth as part of the package of blessings, I don't know if they desired it, but I think it was not much of a consequence to them. They desired the greater things... they sought the Kingdom of God. Wealth was a consequence of their relationship with God and not a consequence of their desire.

Then we come to the new testament, it is the new testament that made me really uncomfortable with the concept of wealth. Look at all of Jesus' disciples, look at Paul. Paul said, " follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ"(1 Corinthians 11:1). Heh.. I don't know if he meant literally everything including lifestyle, he didn't specify, but I think it means the attitude towards God, life, morality, the world. Here are some things that came to me as I was thinking the matter through:

• story about the rich young man who asked Jesus how he can attain eternal life. "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24
• the parable of the weeds, "but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful." Mark 4:19
• "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Matt 6:24
• "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1Tim 6:10
  

Think there are many more that calls us to be weary of this thing called wealth. My question to those who tell me to ask God for blessings specifically in relation to material wealth is, "Why?". Why do I want to ask for something that makes it easier to jeopardize my walk with God? How will asking for wealth make me more Christ-like? Why store treasure on earth? The path to heaven is already so narrow and small without adding the extra burden of money. I might have faith in God, but the flesh is weak. If I ask God for wealth, it'll not be for the sole nobel reason of wanting to bless others, it'll be a desire for my own pleasure.. So guess he will not grant those desires anyway (James 4:3). May God help me, that I do not fall into desiring wealth, when I can desire Love, desire Faith, desire the kingdom of God. At the end of the day, when/if he sees fit to add all other blessings as well. (Matt 6:33)

Let us all strive to live by the examples of all the disciples, Paul and most of all Christ. To have the wealth of experience in life, and in all of them to be content in where God has placed us.

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:11-13