7-2-2017

Good Morning All,

                  Ephesians 1:18; “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”

       It is always an interesting discussion when you talk to Confirmation age kids and ask them about how wealthy they are.  Once in a while, you will get a student who thinks that his family is rich but not very often.  For the most part, most students will claim that their family is barely getting by.  “My mom says we can’t afford to do everything we want so we have to choose carefully.”  “My dad says that he isn’t made of money.”  “My grandpa says that money doesn’t grow on trees.”  “I only get $25 a week and I have to do chores to get that.”

     Then of course the discussion changes a little.  “My friend, Melanie, her mom gives her $50 a week and she doesn’t have to do anything.”  “There is this kid at my school; he has an iPhone, an iPad and a tablet.”  “My friend and his parents went to Disneyland for 10 days.”  So now we are just looking at people who have more than we have so that must mean that we are poor, right?

    So then I ask them if they know any kids who don’t have cell phones or fancy clothes and shoes.  They admit that they know some, maybe even quite a few.  So I ask, “do you think that they think you are rich?”  There is usually a quick “no” but then I ask, “if you look up to someone who has more and you think they are rich; why don’t you think those with less than you do the same thing.”  Now the wheels turn.

    Then you start to give them some interesting factoids to think about.  If all of the land was equally distributed among the people of the world, each person would get 4.5 acres of land to live off of; yet the average American consumes 22.5 acres to live.  Less than 8% of the world’s population has a bank account.  More than 3 billion cannot read.  Now, all of a sudden, I may know people with more than I have but there are a whole lot more who have less than I have.

    This is one of the devil’s greatest ploys.  He gets us to compare what we have to what others have but we usually only see those who have more than we have and feel somehow cheated.  Yet God has blessed us, especially those of us who live in the United States, with an incredible amount of material blessing far above our spiritual and faith blessing.  We are incredibly blessed in this land; yet we often don’t see it.  We think we need more and more and yet that very attitude leads to more pain and more struggles.  We want more so we work more and spend less and less time with our families and friends and we spend less time with God.  So our stuff gets in the way of what is, and should be the most important.

    So God calls us to see that the richness of his grace is the greatest wealth of all.  The material stuff he gives us to make this world a better place; the question is, are we?

Dearest heavenly Father, in your loving kindness you have blessed us beyond our needs and have given us a bounty beyond measure.  Help us to see it as a trust from you and to reach out to those who have so little.  Help us to bring peace into their life that we may glorify your holy name.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret