LET’S TALK – Do not wear yourself out to get rich – Proverbs 23:4

I feel like I am getting back into writing.

Hopefully that means more posts, more content, and more encouragement. I just pray that God will continue to sustain me, and that I will draw close to Him.

But today, I want to talk about something we all deal with. Money.

Didn’t you just do a post on contentment? Now we have another post on money. This is a lot bro.

This wasn’t the plan. But it is the result, nonetheless.

What?

Sorry, I heard that in a show.

Okay, so I was reading an article the other day. It was titled, “The truth about money?”

The truth about money?

Yep.

But before we get into that. Let’s open our Bibles to Proverbs 23:4-5.

Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. 5 When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Proverbs 23:4-5

So in the article, they mentioned that,

“Having more money can give you more opportunities to do good in the world.”

And I’ll be honest, I already began to become cautious. What was going to come next? Was this a build up towards prosperity gospel? Were they going to encourage me to focus on making money, so that I can do good?

Valid thoughts. There’s a lot of interesting, to say the least, ideas and way of thought out there. We’ve got to stay on guard.

But what else did they say?

They spoke on Jesus and how Jesus said, ‘This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’ (Matthew 24:14 NIV).

Okay. Interesting choice of scripture. Did they expand on it?

Yes, they did. They spoke on that verse and how fulfilling that commission will require money – lots of it. And I know what you are thinking. But don’t be worried. They saved it by emphasising this:

But money by itself will never make you happy or secure.

Going on to state the verse we read earlier where Solomon, one of the world’s richest men, writes: ‘Do not overwork to be rich; because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle towards heaven’ (Proverbs 23:4-5 NKJV).

I feel like I use this example every time, but when one of the world’s wealthiest men died recently, a reporter asked a family member, ‘How much did he leave?’

The relative replied, ‘All of it!’

No matter how much money you make, save, invest, or keep, eventually your money will leave you or you will leave your money.

That’s the truth.

Let me add on to that. Someone –

Who?

SOMEONE wisely observed that there are seven ages of man.

Here’s the first: a child sees the earth.

Then there’s the second, he wants it.

Third, he hustles to get it.

Fourth, he decides to be satisfied with about half of it.

Why half?

Hold on…

Fifth, he decides he’d be satisfied with less than half.

Sixth, he’s now content to possess a three-by-six-foot burial plot.

Seventh, he gets it!

Hold on.

That was kinda…bleak.

Can we keep things a bit more upbeat?

There are lots of things you can live without – and great wealth is one of them.

What you can’t live without, however, is peace with God, a family filled with love, a lifelong friendship with your kids, and a life well-lived for the glory of God.

But let me also say this:

God is not against people becoming wealthy.

There are many people in the history of the Bible who became wealthy.

Why?

Because of God’s specific blessing upon them. So God is not “anti-wealth” as some people would suppose.

Are you talking about me?

Moving on, He is concerned with how people view money and wealth – and to be more specific how they pursue it. That is where the real danger lies.

So back to that verse, don’t weary yourself to gain wealth.

There is the first principle God puts before us.

First of many…

And I don’t think we will get through it all today but let’s unpack this a little.

So let’s imagine this person. When you read “weary yourself”, what comes to mind?

It indicates that the person is putting forth great effort and exhausting exertion to try to accomplish something. They are working super-duper hard.

Super-duper? Nevermind.

It should probably be noted here that God is for hard work. He does wants us to work hard at the things we do. He really does He wants us to offer excellence and effort to our jobs and in the things we do for Him and for others. So no, the Lord is not encouraging laziness here. What He is saying, is that those who put forth exhausting labour with the main goal being to become wealthy are focusing on the wrong goal.

Proverbs tells us next that we are to cease from our consideration of becoming wealthy.

And that’s hard to accept initially.

We’ll continue in the next post, but I want to encourage to ask yourself…

What do you think they mean by this?

Cease from our consideration?

Should we not try to become wealthy?

Should we not even think about it?

An interesting word is used for “consideration” here.

It means to think hard about something. The result of this thinking should be a proper discernment of it. But according to what is being said here, it seems like God is warning us against making wealth the thing we consider and think hard about in life.

There are those who constantly chase the illusive goal of being rich.

They read books about it – they listen to tapes that promise them the way to get there – they listen to radio shows that promise them that if they do what this man says – they’ll be rich.

And I’ll be honest.

I was one of those people. At times I still am. Constantly reading to try make sure I am in the best position to be “comfortable”.

There is even a “chrisitanized” version of this thinking.

The health/wealth/prosperity teaching promises that God Himself is nothing but a divine sugar daddy.

Yes.

We said it.

Sugar Daddy.

If we treat Him right – and confess the right things – we’ll be rich!

Wonder how that works for persecuted Christians behind the bamboo curtain who are in jail for their faith?

My Sunday Skl