Is Your Blessed Assurance Jesus Or Your Bank Account

My Utmost For His Highest

You also be ready… —Luke 12:40

{CHAMBERS} “A Christian worker’s greatest need is a readiness to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. […] If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious. In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle— we must be spiritually real.  If you are avoiding the call of the religious thinking of today’s world, and instead are “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), setting your heart on what He wants, and thinking His thoughts, you will be considered impractical and a daydreamer.”

{ELGIN}  (Joshua 1:8-9) “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I [the Lord] not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  How much time do you spend focused on your faith during the day?  Or have you relegated that to Sunday morning?  The Lord said that we must have a focused faith to be prosperous and successful. Now the prosperity and success that the Lord is talking about is not a “fat” bank account … sufficient 401k to allow you to continue to live in comfort in the lifestyle that you enjoy … it’s about relationships.  Relationships with God and man.  

Jesus told a parable that addresses our penchant for storing things up for ourselves …. (Luke 12:16-23) “And he [Jesus] told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’  “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. “And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.””  What is it that you spend your life focused on?  What is it that makes you worry? 

If you want to be rich, choose to be rich toward God!  We have some dear friends whose life motto is “We live simply so others can simply live.”  If your focus is on God, you will find satisfaction and contentment with much less than you ever imagined … but if your focus is on the things of this world, you will never be satisfied.  Think about it.