DATE POSTED: Tuesday, 2023-03-21
WRITTEN AT: O’Brien, FL

BY: Ed Algreen

SCRIPTURE FROM: Luke 12:15; 20-21;
TRANSLATION: The Passion Translation (TPT)

BIBLE TEXT: 15 Speaking to the people, Jesus continued, “Be alert and guard your heart from greed and from always wishing for what you don’t have. For your life can never be measured by the amount of things you possess.”  20“God said to him, ‘What a fool you are to trust in your riches and not in me! This very night the messengers of death will take your life. Then who will get all the wealth you have stored up for yourself?’ 21The same thing will happen to all those who fill up their lives with everything but God.”

OBSERVATION: In verse 15, Jesus addressed the crowd after a young man asked for Jesus to get involved in having his brother share up their dad’s estate. In verse 20-21 Jesus responded to a man who felt like his riches would soon be sufficient to allow him to sit back, relax and enjoy life. In both cases, Jesus wanted us to be aware that no matter what earthly things we allow to fill our hearts and satisfy our earthly needs, they count for naught in the Kingdom of Heaven. How is it with you, is there a good balance between your earthly cravings and your heavenly relationship with Jesus, that He might be pleased with?

APPLICATION: Those working secular jobs for a paycheck and insurance benefits, if available, will probably work 40 hours per week. For those who love their job and seeking to move ahead on the job, will gladly and willingly work additional hours, as needed. I once told the relatives of a deceased fellow employee that almost half of their loved one’s awake hours were spent in the business place with us coworkers! For those who are not lazy, they will spend their time at home cleaning, cooking, yard work, attending kid’s ball games, etc. But how much quality time can we say is attributed to the study of God’s Word, and spending time alone with Him in prayer? Have we made ourselves so busy that we’ve left little time to spend with our Creator? Most of us spend an inordinate amount of time at work, because we have over obligated ourselves financially, and we need more income to make our budget work. Does this sound like Jesus may have been speaking to us when He responded to the brother who was trying to get more money out of his dad’s estate? Or in the challenge that Jesus placed before the man who worked so diligently to attain his desired level of worth? Friends, if you were asked ‘In whom, or in what, do you place your trust?’, and if this was not at church, what might you respond? I’m afraid that some will respond ‘my work or profession’ but some might respond ‘in my wife/husband’ while some may even respond ‘in my bank account’. I believe that Jesus might challenge us with the same point that He made to the two men in today’s Scripture: ‘If you weren’t so greedy for everything you see, or in what someone else has, then you might see the most important needs of your life each and every day – right at home’. Or Jesus might say ‘what will happen to those you have responsibility for, if you were called out of this world tonight?’. In other words, I believe Jesus will give us some perspective into the people and things that should have our attention, vs the time we waste on everything and everyone else. It’s easy for us to calculate the hours we spend at work, because many will complete a timesheet for the payroll manager. And although God is not concerned about tallying up the hours you spend with Him, I believe that He is disappointed when we make time for everything and every person in our lives, except the One who created us, and loved us enough that He sent His very own Son as a sacrifice for our sins. We may work overtime in order to pay our debts, but we could never do, say or even love enough to thank God for the awesome sacrifice made at Calvary for our heavenly benefit. I seriously doubt if God requires anything in return for the sacrifice, He made for us. Thankfully, God built into us a sense of appreciation for those things or people that helps us along in life. How are you showing that appreciation, dear friend? I was told repeatedly at work that my job was never complete until I had someone trained to do it in my absence. I believe that the ‘Life’ referred to in verse 15 is that our time here on earth is incomplete if we fail to share our appreciation with God about all that He has done for us. A loved one once told me that it was not until she was on her back, with little choice but to look up, that she realized what should be important in her life. We could avoid a similar experience by putting our minds to it and deciding to live as appreciative children of the Most High God!

BLESSING(S) NOTED: Our life cannot be measured by the money we made, the things we owned or the people we hung out with. Only the things we did for Jesus will last, be remembered and valued by Almighty God!

PRAYER: Precious Lord, we do a fair job at completing the things that we make a priority. But as You reminded us in the Scriptures today, those priorities produce temporal results. As a child I was told ‘only what’s done for Jesus will last’, and I am still reminded of that truth in today’s Word. Teach us Lord to remember our Creator and all that You did for us, especially on Calvary. May our days never be more important than the times that we spend with You each day. Please forgive us Lord for minimizing our time with You so that we could make more time for our family, our job, our church, or even our health center. Teach us how to make You first in our lives again, and to show this through the priorities we make. Please Lord, touch the hearts and lives of our unsaved loved ones and friends. May they see Jesus as a priority in our lives and want to do the same in theirs. AMEN!