Got Hope?
If the rich are so despised, why would anyone want to be rich?
Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away. - James 1:9-11
James seems to give the rich a hard time, pointing out how they will wither away in the midst of a busy life.
Isn't that true for all of us?
Perhaps James just wants us to know that wealth will not buy us longer life, no matter how hard we work to gain and maintain our riches.
While we are busy doing all it takes to store up wealth, we die. So, if we know this, what should we do differently? Should we seek not to gain wealth but to be content with what we have and don't have?
I spend a great deal of time with people who have nothing. Many don't want to live the way they live. They want to know where they will sleep tonight and where their next meal will come from.
Now I would not presume to say that most would not want to gain wealth. Who wouldn't see money as a solution to the problem of poverty? But more is needed.
What is needed is hope.
Hope can break the cycle that leads back to despair. It lifts up the lowly and makes them whole. All of us need hope. Without it, we wither and die.
So, what we try to do each day is bring hope to those who have no family or friends to comfort them and listen to what they have to say.
When everyone you know has had enough and can no longer support you in your addictions and bad choices, you are truly alone. But you are not dead to God, and He is the one who sends us to be with you.
So, those who feel that life is a rat race with a never ending spiral of work and disappointment seeking riches that don't satisfy, come and spend some time with us.
You may just discover the peace that passes all understanding is close at hand.
Get hope?
Share it.
More to come...