I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
Are you keeping your eyes on aging family members and calculating what you will get when they die?
Are you ready to fight with other people to get what you think should be yours?
Why are you doing that?
So many family divisions have happened over stuff. People value the money and the things more than they value the family relationships.
It’s greed. It’s a lack of faith. It’s storing up treasures in the wrong place. It’s putting stuff before people, which is ultimately putting stuff before God.
In Matthew 19 we read about the rich young ruler. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me,” but the rich young ruler chose not to follow Jesus. Why? Matthew 19:22 says it was because “he had great possessions.”
It makes me wonder, “How great were they, really? Great enough to literally turn your back on Jesus so you could focus on your stuff?”
You know, it wasn’t long until that man died and then what happened to all his stuff? Did his kids fight over it? Or maybe he didn’t have any kids because having kids would have taken away from his wealth.
Now I’m thinking of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. He had no children, and when he died, the servants came in laughing and grabbing the spoils, not even caring that he was dead.
In Luke 12 we read about brothers who were in a big fight over their inheritance. It was so divisive that one of them came and presented his case to Jesus. I don’t know what he thought Jesus was going to say, but Jesus certainly didn’t give him the answer he wanted.
In Luke 12:15 we read what Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
Then he told the parable of the rich fool who horded up stuff for himself, only to die and someone else got it. God called the man a fool, and Jesus said that’s what everyone is who “lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
In the very next verse Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?”
Jesus concluded by saying that our heavenly Father knows what we need, and that when we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be provided.
God has an unlimited supply!
Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “Which would you rather have, a storehouse full of bread, or a Father who is a really prolific baker?”
Our Father is a prolific baker! He will provide for us daily as we seek Him first. And seeking Him first means loving people. That means putting people before stuff. It means putting our family relationships ahead of the family spoils.
Let them have the stuff! What are you going to do without? God says that as we seek Him, we will NOT go without anything that we need.
When we realize that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory, we can relax! We can let the other guy have some! We can let the rest of the family have the spoils without us blowing up the family just to get our share. God is our provider, and that sets us free to love others and let them have the stuff instead of fighting them for it.
So if you have your eyes fixed on those aging family members and the potential riches you might grab onto, stop it. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Set your eyes on things above, not on things on the earth.
We don’t have to scratch and claw and bite and fight with the family. We love them! And then we trust in God to supply what we need, and the great news is…
He has an unlimited supply!
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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