Daily Devotionals

Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time

Devotional: December 24th

“The rich, man thinks of his wealth as an impregnable defense, a high wall of safety. What a dreamer!” (HYPERLINK "javascript:" Living Bible)

The rich fool in Luke’s gospel had so much wealth he didn’t know what to do with it. So he decided to tear down his barns and silos and build bigger ones. Then he thought he would feel satisfied, not knowing that he would die as soon as his building project was completed. His wealth wouldn’t save him from death and the grave.

Sider says, “The rich fool is the epitome of the covetous person. He has a greedy compulsion to acquire more and more possessions, even though he does not need them. And his phenomenal success at piling up more and more property leads to the blasphemous conclusion that material possessions can satisfy all his needs. From the divine perspective, however, this attitude is sheer madness. He is a raving fool.”

There is a legend about a man who wanted to become rich in the stock market. When someone told him he could have anything he wanted, he said he would like to see the newspaper one year from that day. His idea, of course, was that he could make a fortune by buying the stocks that would rise the most during the ensuing year. When he got the paper, he gloated about how rich he would become. But then he looked at the death notices and his name was there.

The psalmist pours scorn on the rich people whose “inner thought is, that their houses are forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names” (NASB). But they die and leave their wealth to others. “Man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish” (NASB).

It is a true saying that money is the universal passport for everywhere except heaven, and the universal provider for everything but happiness.

No rich person ever has a dollar sign inscribed on his tombstone, even though money has been the obsession of his life. If he used the symbol of what has been paramount to him, it would be the $. But in death he chooses a religious symbol, such as a cross. It is a final gesture of hypocrisy. The righteous look on and say, “Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness”. And God writes his epitaph, “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Lu. 12:21).