Today's Scripture Reading (September 26, 2026): Ezekiel 28
I
have to admit I am at odds with some beliefs in the contemporary church. One of them is the belief that God
wants you rich. It is not that I believe that God wants you poor, or that money
is necessarily evil, but I don't think our Creator wants you to be rich. Some
argue that God owns everything, so why wouldn't he want to give it to those of
us who follow him? Why shouldn't Christians possess the world's wealth,
especially if we decide to use it to help those in need?
On
the surface, it might seem like a good argument, but the problem is that
material wealth can make us believe in our own power. We become secure in our designs
and our wisdom. God doesn't necessarily want us poor, but he does want us to
remember that he is the source of everything. I firmly believe that the lack of
power (and integrity) in the Western Church is because of our affluence and our
lack of dependence on God. God wants us to trust him. That is his priority.
We
stand in the modern place of Tyre. We have depended on our power and on our
wisdom. Our hearts have grown proud, and our lives are experiencing a severe
power failure. We have come to believe, like Tyre, that our wealth and material
goods are the fruit of our great talent. We sincerely believe we deserve what
we have. In fact, we often believe that we deserve more than what we have. What
will eventually defeat us is not what we lack, and prosperity will not come
from what we have. We have much. However, what will defeat us is who we believe
gave it to us. Everything that we have comes from God. I don't deserve anything
I possess in my life. I have what God has given to me. You have what God has
given to you. Understanding that will return power to our lives, because that
knowledge allows us to tap into God's power instead of our own. And that is
power that I know I need.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 29
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