I Shall Not Be in Want
What would you do for ten million dollars?
In “The Day America Told the Truth,” a book published in the 1990's, you can see what Americans would do for $10,000,000. A study shows that the following percent of people would:
- Abandon their entire family (25%)
- Leave their church (25%)
- Become prostitutes for a week (25%)
- Leave their spouse (16%)
- Withhold eyewitness testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
- Kill a stranger (7%)
It’s all a lie, really. People would do what they know is wrong for an amount of money they know would make their lives right. Yeah, right. Their lives would only change for the worse. The guilt, regret, and unfulfilled expectations of the perfect life would crash down with violent turmoil. It would turn out all wrong.
“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction,” the Bible warns (1 Timothy 6:9). It’s not getting rich that causes turmoil. It’s wanting to get rich. This has nothing to do with the amount of riches, but an attitude toward riches.
What would you do for ten million dollars? More exactly, what would you expect the ten million dollars would do for you … that God couldn’t do for you without the ten million dollars?
Watch out! Jesus calls wealth deceitful because it can easily convince us that the devil’s lies are true: God can’t do for us what good things can. “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread,” a wise proverb in the Bible states (Proverbs 30:8).
Contentment and peace in life depend not on amount but attitude. To put that spiritually, contentment and peace come from faith – not from the perfect job promotion, not from better health, not from the home of our dreams, not from finding Prince Charming. “If those are part of my daily bread, well, then that’s up to God.” That is a content faith speaking.
Content sheep know they will never run out of anything their shepherd knows they need. Rather than wanting more, more, more – followers of the Good Shepherd seek to become more, more, more content.
PRAYER: How can I demand that I should have what I want, O God, when my point of view is so distorted by a lack of knowledge and imperfect selfishness? Why do I spend so much time fretting over what I do not have, when you have already given me so much? Forgive my restless desires that lead me to wander for greener grass. I want nothing more than you as my Good Shepherd. Amen.