Last week as I was reading the newspaper, a story about a small rural town in South Dakota grabbed my attention. In this town of 3,000 residents, someone bought a winning ticket in the Powerball lottery worth .... are you ready? .... $232.1 million! And the name of the town? Winner, SD! At first I chuckled to myself as I read this and saw the irony in it. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered, "Does winning the lottery really make one a 'winner?'"According to a number of Internet sites, a sizeable portion of million dollar plus lottery winners eventually file bankruptcy (the % cited ranges from 25 % to 80%). My point is not to determine an actual percentage of just how many big lottery winners go broke - but to simply point out a truth that all of us need to realize. MONEY DOES NOT GUARANTEE HAPPINESS! In fact, the Bible clearly teaches that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).
Those of us who claim allegiance to Jesus Christ must grasp the truth spelled out by Paul just prior to the verse I just quoted. Listen (and APPLY!) what he writes to Timothy (and by extension to all of US!):
"But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (1 Timothy 6:6-8).
This is not all that easy to apply in our materialistic world -- but by God's grace and for HIS glory - let's strive to do so!Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj
No comments:
Post a Comment