In the face of the materialist idols Satan so tempts the world of today with, Proverbs 30:8b–9 provides us with great alternative wisdom to the mainstream of 21^st century British culture:

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Jesus says that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven because their great wealth can blind them to seeing their physical and spiritual need of Him. Sadly, their wealth can corrupt their souls so they boast not in God but their wealth. On the other extreme is the person who is so poor that they sin by taking what is not theirs. They too fail to trust God to provide and take their salvation into their own hands. What is the best state to find oneself in according to this proverb? It is to have one’s daily bread, to have just enough, to be content (cf. Mt 6:11, 31–33; 1 Ti 6:6–8; Heb 13:5), and more so to be content knowing that if one has Christ they have more than enough.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

It is because of the vast spiritual treasury available to the believer in Christ that Paul could say in Philippians 3:8, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all [material] things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

The Lord’s Sweetest Blessings,

Pastor Chris