“No amount of wealth can replace the treasure of virtue.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – December 7, 2024
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21, NIV
We live in anxious times, and anxiety is the fuel that powers a self-centered life. Countless “what ifs…” swirl about in our heads, and we feel the need to prepare and protect against every possible vulnerability. And to be clear, you don’t have to have a cellar full of nonperishable goods for this to apply to you! We all do this to varying degrees, looking to insulate ourselves from the harsher realities of life.
With timeless wisdom, our Lord Jesus exposes the folly of this mindset. You may have millions in your retirement account, multiple homes paid in full, and countless toys and hobbies that help pass your days, yet every bit of it can disappear in an instant. All it takes is one call from the doctor or one head-on collision. As our passage says in verse 20, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”
Here, I’m reminded of the words of St. Ambrose of Milan, who in the 4th century said, “The things which we cannot take with us are not ours. Only virtue will be our companion when we die.” These are hard words to hear, especially for those of us living in the modern Western world, which has given us the wealthiest society in the history of the human race. Yet, no amount of wealth can replace the treasure of virtue, and no amount of saving and planning can insulate you from the inevitability of your own mortality. As we are reminded in James 4:14, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
The more we have, the more time we spend managing our stuff. By contrast, when we live simply and give freely, our lives are nimble and responsive to the invitation of the Holy Spirit. The Lord loves to find servants who are free to say “yes” to the inbreaking of his kingdom in our world. Let us be those kinds of disciples, liberated from lives that are too small and too concerned with what is here today and gone tomorrow. Store up virtue and seek above all else to be rich toward God.
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, NIV).
Prayer
Father, liberate us from the tyranny of materialism and earthly wealth, and set our hearts on high with you, where true joy is found, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
In light of our passage, reflect openly and honestly on this question: If your life was demanded from you today, would you be pleased to offer the Lord the content of your storehouses?
Related Reading
Ecclesiastes 5:10; Matthew 6:19-21; 1 Timothy 6:17-19
Worship Resource
Abbie Gamboa: Center
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