I was astounded the other day when I read Matthew 19:16-24 with fresh eyes. Here’s the passage (from the Good News Translation) and along with it, my fresh perspective, which appears in red:
The story starts off when a rich young man comes up to Jesus with a question: “Teacher, what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
Interesting question.
I can only imagine the Teacher looking at the young man and, among other things, immediately ascertaining by his appearance that he’s wealthy.
Jesus’ reply to the question: “Why do you ask me concerning what is good? There is only One who is good.”
Wow. Food for thought for me. Have I been reaching for the impossible in trying to be good? Apparently, I have company in the strive to be good. There was a young lady at one of my retreats about two years ago who told the group (when asked what she really wanted) “I want to be a good sister, a good friend, a good Christian…”
Well, so much for being good. There is One who is good–God alone.
Don’t try to be good. Don’t have being good as a goal. It won’t work. Christ lets us know it won’t happen. And it’s true, who do you know that’s good all the time?
Then he says, “Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.”
The rich young man asks, “What commandments?”
After Jesus lists the commandments, the young rich man replies: “I have obeyed all these commandments. What else do I need to do?”
He sounds like me. Over-achievers are always looking for something else to do, rather than giving consideration to how to simply be.
Christ retorts with: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you wil have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
This is where it got to be astounding to me. Jesus didn’t make this statement to the young man in the beginning. He made this statement after having a conversation with the young man, and after having ascertained what was really going on with him. It gets better…
The scripture says, “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.”
Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: It will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. I repeat, it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
For years, this scripture was drilled into my psyche as proof positive that I shouldn’t want to be wealthy. It was used as a means to curtail desire. I can appreciate that. After all, desires can never be fully satisfied, once they’re fed, more emerge to take their place.
Yet, there are real reasons to be well off–abundantly prospered–from a spiritual standpoint. I can think of 3 that immediately come to mind:
- Being prosperous makes for bigger tithe checks. The more I am blessed with, the more I am able to give.
- Abundance comes from having an abundance mindset. An abundance mindset comes from knowing the truth: God prospers me always.
- Prosperity is our natural state, everything God made in the manifest world abounds with plenty. There is no lack in God. Therefore, if I live in lack, it means I’ve made the choice to live a lie.
I don’t know about you, but when I maintain an abundance mindset, and the prosperity is flowing, I feel good. It feels natural. All is well and I give freely and generously. When things are tight, it feels like something is out of place, off balance and not quite right. I begin to do my prosperity work to bring my mind and heart back into alignment with what’s true…and results in my outer world soon follow.
Verse 29 really sums up Jesus message well: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life.”
Christ states that whatever we are willing to give up, will be returned to us 100 times. Which means there’s nothing inherently wrong with riches, wealthy or abundant prosperity.
What becomes an issue is our attachment to riches, and our deification of wealth. Examining motives is a good thing, so it’s key to ask yourself, honestly and bluntly, what your financial net worth means to you. It could mean that you’ve done an excellent job in stewardship over what’s been entrusted to you, or it could mean otherwise.
Either way, what are you telling yourself about your money?
More important, how attached are you to what you’ve acquired?
What Jesus makes clear is that attachments to riches will cause a downfall. It’s what makes people jump out the window when there’s a stock market crash. It’s what keeps folks working excessive overtime, neglecting family, friends, health and peace of mind in pursuit of the next dollar.
Further, attachments to riches (or anything else) spells difficulty in living a Spirit-centered life. How can you be 100% for God is you’re stuck to money?
On the flip side, we trust and know that God’s dream for us is to be exceedingly well taken care of, which means living abundantly. Making the choice for God rather than riches means making the choice for higher living and more life, which results in increased abundance of every kind, 100-fold.
I am trusting fully in God, not money. I’ve trusted money before, and it let me down every time. It’s elusive and comes and goes at a whim.
God is eternal, ever-present, omnipotent and always delivers super-abundantly more than we could ever ask or desire, which makes me feel really good.
Riches aren’t the issue; being attached to riches is.
Carry this thought with you as you live abundantly!
Rich Blessings,
Valerie Love
Tags: abundance, Prosperity
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