Be Rich Toward God
Tomorrow is coming, we think. The end of the current year will transpire tonight at midnight, and we will kiss the one we love as we look forward to the coming New Year, but what if tomorrow never comes? There are so many who proclaim:
Live for today, accumulating all you can get. OR
Live today as if you are dying, giving everything to this earthly life. OR EVEN
Live, Eat, Be Merry for tomorrow you die.
All three paths lead to destruction; Jesus Himself tells us so.
While traveling along, Jesus entered the village of Bethany, the place where Lazarus, Mary and Martha called home. Soon after staying in their home, His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray and how to live in this world. Jesus began to teach, explaining how to pray, how to live as God’s light, how to not neglect those who surround you, how the LORD GOD cares for them, and how not to covet and store up treasures on earth, but in heaven.
“And He told them a parable, saying,
(The Gospel According to Luke 12: 16-21 NASB)
“The land of a rich man was very productive.
And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’
Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come;
take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” ‘
But God said to him, ‘You fool!
This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’
So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
My husband and I are farmers at heart, and although we are currently leasing out our land to another herdsman, still we find ourselves drawn to watch YouTube, following grain farmers who live in the upper Midwest. During a recent episode, the farmers were jockeying around their equipment to clean up their equipment after harvest and to do routine maintenance. Now, these farmers farm BIG, like thousands of acres, so their equipment is large, REALLY LARGE. Therefore, the equipment shed where they house and maintain their equipment is an overly large structure. During this recent episode, the farmer was maneuvering one of the large tractors through the building, weaving around this and around that, attempting to not bump into another piece of farming equipment housed in the equipment shed. Now, I cannot aptly describe the equipment/maintenance shed with words, but suffice it to say: THIS BARN IS BIG!
To the one watching the YouTube video, watching these grain farmers do life, one might be tempted to say: “They should tear down their current shed and build an even larger equipment shed so that they would have ample room.” Does not this comment sound exactly like the rich man in the parable Jesus told to teach His disciples? Do we need BIGGER BARNS—or—Do we need to give away what we have to help others who have needs? Should we acquire more and more—or—Should we give away half of what we own to help meet the needs of others & to learn how to lean on the Lord even more to provide for our own daily needs? Do we need BIGGER BARNS—or—Do we need BIGGER HEARTS for the lost and dying world that surrounds us?
May we strive daily to be “rich toward God.”
May we strive daily to store up the true treasures, those stored in heaven.
We should not presume tomorrow will come—even today, on this last day of the year. The LORD does not promise us tomorrow, so we must live within THIS CURRENT DAY THE LORD HAS PROVIDED.
We should not hope for tomorrow, storing up our treasures on earth, as this rich young man in the parable did. We must STORE UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN AND LIVE FOR TODAY, TESTIFYING TO OTHERS ABOUT THE SAVIOR.
We should prepare for tomorrow in the way the Bible instructs us LIVING IN THE LORD’S WILL.
“Come now, you who say,
(The Letter of James 4: 13-15 NASB)
“Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city,
and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
Happy New Year’s Eve.
Make some healthy resolutions for the New Year, but walk in today, the 31st day of December.
Prepare for tomorrow, but do not presume tomorrow will come.
Store up treasures, not here on earth but in heaven.
Prepare for tomorrow & live in the Lord’s will—TODAY—for the most compelling witness of all in the Word of God. So, when we do as Jesus teaches, we show the world WHOSE we are & WHO we follow.
This side of heaven, there is always room for spiritual growth, so on this final day of the year, may we ask the LORD: How am I doing spiritually? & then make NEW YEAR’S COMMITMENTS TO GOD.