I very rarely play the lottery, but sometimes when the jackpot gets very high, I like to think about what I would do if I won all that money. I imagine retiring early and being able to relax and enjoy life without worries. However, after thinking about it, having a huge amount of money brings about a lot more worries.
There is a certain amount of money that we all need to survive and a certain amount we need to thrive. If we have more money than we need to thrive, problems start to arise. There comes a point where we have to make a decision to either keep increasing our own standard of living or to start helping a person who has little to no standard of living. There is nothing wrong with having a lot of wealth, but more is expected from someone who has a lot. Everyone has their own gifts that they have to contribute to humanity and for some people, their wealth can be their gift. I know that I would feel bad living the high life when so many people are in pain and in desperate need for help.
We gain grace when we lean on God. We tend to talk and pray more to Him when we are in need of something. When a person has their every need and want taken care of, they may feel like they don’t need God. They may worship their money more than they worship God or they may even feel like they are a god.
When someone has a lot of money, they need to protect it. Often protecting it takes precedence over everything else. The rich person can become so obsessed with protecting their wealth that they put up physical and social barriers in their life and associate with only a select few people who are like them. When we close ourselves off to others, we are in a way closing ourselves off to God.
Jesus warns us that it is hard for a rich person to enter into heaven. He knows the temptations that money can bring in our life. He knows how hard it is to give up our hard earned money, but we need to remember that we can’t bring our wealth into heaven. The wealth we need to be building is spiritual wealth. If we are blessed to have wealth in this world, we should try to find ways to use it to create spiritual wealth in heaven. The best financial advice is to convert as much of our physical wealth to spiritual wealth. We will get the best return on our money and will be able to truly live the high life up in heaven.
