Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
True Values
Pastor Scott
Thursday, August 19, 2004
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"Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."
(Luke 12:15)
"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on...how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Luke 12:22, 28) A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things; a man's life is about the faith that appropriated the things that he has. We do not trust and delight in the abundance, but trust and delight in the source--God. Do you really treasure the item or the source? The real riches are the relationship and the love behind it. What makes something really worth something? Two people can give you the same thing and one has more value than the other. Why? The value that you place upon the giver, the relationship, is what makes one worth more than the other. How thankful are you for what your Father has given you? What value do you put on that relationship? A piece of granite that God gives you can be worth more than a diamond that the flesh gives you. The natural mind doesn't believe that, but it is the truth. In the whole twelfth chapter of Luke the abundance that you can produce is contrasted with faith in the sovereignty of God and the satisfaction of the relationship. There is the contrast of being rich in the world and rich toward God. Which realm are you working to be rich in? Where are you looking to receive your gratification? What do you put worth on? "Lay up treasures," the Lord said, "in heaven."
The covetous spirit of lust is an insatiable desire to have more. The sin of pride and selfishness that wants the most and the best pales in comparison to the sin of judging God unfaithful and devaluing the worth of His provision and His presence by being discontent. We don't even realize the vexation in our lives because of the spirit of our abundance--the insanity of heaping more upon ourselves when we have no needs. We measure our worth by what we possess and people's recognition. That spirit needs to be dealt with in every one of our lives.
"Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15). That does not mean the quality of the things alone but that God is not the source of them. You have to have above the necessities that He promised He would give you. Abundance is anything that you have to have for self-worth and selfishness to gratify lust. The definition of abundance is not the amount; it is the source and the spirit. Our life is not measured by the abundance of the things that we possess. Some people really believe that he who has the most toys when he dies wins. It's now about keeping score and who can get the most. Stop and think about that spirit. That is what a lot of our acquisitions are all about. We may not even be in competition with somebody else. The spirit of rewarding ourselves is one of the greatest ploys today of many of the businesses because of the spirit of our society--you deserve this, you deserve a break today, you deserve this vacation, you deserve the spa, pamper yourself. It's about selfishness and the over-valuing of self.