"Do you want to be truly rich? You already are if you are happy and good. After all, we didn't bring any money with us when we came into the world, and we can't carry away a single penny when we die" (1 Timothy 6:6,7).
If you had the choice of choosing between great wealth and good health and a happy, joyful relationship with our Lord, which would you choose? Though many would choose wealth, I am sure that if you are a Christian, you would gladly choose to live modestly the rest of your life if necessary in order to experience daily the joy of your salvation.
During all of my career, I, an agnostic, had worked hard to successfully develop my business interests. Then, in the providence of God, I was brought face to face with Christ and His Word. "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
It was as though God touched my mind to enable me to understand that I could eat only one meal at a time, wear one suit of clothes at a time and take nothing with me when I die. I understood for the first time that being truly rich does not involve the accumulation of vast wealth, but it involves knowing and doing the will of God - in walking in intimate, vital, personal fellowship with Him daily as a way of life.
Fanny Crosby, the hymnwriter, gave us more than eight thousand gospel songs. Although blinded at the age of six weeks, she never held any bitterness in her heart because of it.
"I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you," a friend once said to her.
"Do you know," she responded quickly, "that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind."
"Why?" asked the astounded clergyman.
"Because," she replied, "when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior."
Today's Action Point
As I figuratively sit at God's banquet table today, I will feast upon His spiritual bounties and not be satisfied with the crumbs of materialism.