Possible

 Matthew 19:26 ESV

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 


Jesus said that it's humanly impossible for a rich person to enter God's Kingdom. Riches tend to come with pride, greed, and stinginess. God isn't anti rich, but he is anti pride, greed and stinginess.

The disciples were men of the world who had imbibed the assumption that riches are good. Jesus challenged the status quo and asserted that it isn't necessarily so. Thankfully, it isn't impossible for God to save rich people. 

If God saves rich people, he will empower them to become less proud, greedy and stingy. He will encourage them to become humble, meek and generous. We have no divine right to riches.

Even though believers are adopted into the family of the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills as it were, that doesn't mean to say we necessarily own countless cattle. Children serve their parents. We only inherit glory in the new creation.

'Sovereign Lord, help us to be mindful of the transience of riches. May we store up treasures in heaven. Please do the impossible and save us we pray, in Christ's name, amen'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Listen!

  Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered. Jeremiah 35:17 ESV In the context, the Rechabites were better at keeping their family traditions than the Jews were at obeying the word of the Lord. God respected the Rechabites nomadic teetotalism. His temper was frayed with His people as a whole however. We don't have to be nomadic. Yet we should remember that this world is not our home, we're just passing through. We shouldn't get too comfortable. We don't have to be teetotal. Yet we must never get drunk on alcohol. We should be sober minded as we consider the eternity to come. Thankfully, salvation is available to us in Christ crucified. Yet we must listen to the way of salvation. If we close our ears to calls to ...
Read more

Listen

  Psalm 143:8 ESV Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. What’s the first thing we do when we wake up? Is it to scroll our phones and check our notifications? Or is it to check in with God through His word, without technological distractions? If we trust in the Lord, we ought to long to hear from Him first thing in the morning. We need daily reminders of His unfailing love. His mercies are new every morning, thankfully. Every day, we need God to direct us. We might be in a groove (or a rut!) of regular practices, yet we should be open to being flexible to whatever life throws at us and what God has for us. He can help us deal with anything that seems to attack us. Morning by morning, we should lift our souls to the Lord. We are to wait in expectancy up Him. He will never fail us. ‘Dear Lord, we come to You this morning expectant of Your goodness to us afresh this day. Please ...
Read more

Listen

 James 1:19 ESV  Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;  As the Turkish proverbs goes, if speaking is silver, listening is golden. Speaking is easy; listening is hard. James calls us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We have two ears and one mouth. This suggests that we should listen about twice as much as we speak! We have a good record of Jesus's words, but he is the ultimate listener too, to respond appropriately to his hearers. James isn't just telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or even to seek to emulate Christ. He reminds us that we're brethren. We're adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus. Anger isn't necessarily wrong. In our anger we're not to sin. We're not to be quick tempered. 'Abba God, we praise you for adopting us into your family. Please help us to display the family characteristics: to be good, temperate listeners. For the glory of your name, a...
Read more