Wednesday, May 30

To download an audio version of this, click here.

Proverbs 18:10-11

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall.

Many years ago I came across the story of a very wealthy Texas oil man who had died. Before his passing he had left instructions for his family that he was to be buried in a gold Cadillac. When the day of the funeral arrived, a large crowd of family and friends gathered around the gravesite and watched as a crane lowered the golden Cadillac containing the now embalmed oil man into the ground. Just as the gleaming car was dropped into the huge vault, an onlooker solemnly whistled to himself and said in hushed tones, “Wooo boy, now that’s livin’!”

Now that story is funny and sad at the same time! I think we all have been tempted at times to think to ourselves, “If I just had a little more money, then I would have it made! We all have a secret number in our heads that we use to fill in the following sentence: “If I just had $______________ more (fill in the blank yourself) - I’d be happy!” 

Pastor Jeff told me the other day that in doing a little research he found an astonishing statistic: nearly ¼ of the entire population of the United States plays some form of lottery weekly. Think about that! Even though the odds of winning such a lottery are the statistical equivalent of zero, still millions buy lottery tickets in hopes of getting rich. 

This kind of thinking is what the ancient writer is talking about when he says:

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall.

Some time ago I had a conversation with a man who had achieved a certain level of success in his career as an attorney. But during the same years that he was climbing the success ladder his marriage and family life were crumbling. He eventually went through a very painful divorce and his children suffered many of the predictable consequences of such family turmoil. As he shared his story with me he used a phrase I have never forgotten. He said, “I was just living at higher and higher levels of poverty.”

It’s so tempting to see our wealth as a “fortified city” or an “unscalable wall.” We so easily buy into the lie that money can provide security as well as happiness. But the Bible is teaching us that the only source of true security is God himself, who never changes – and his salvation, which promises an eternal reward. Wealth, on the other hand, is fickle as well as fleeting. Wealth can create as many problems as it solves; and wealth can disappear quickly due to economic events beyond our control.

The truth is simply this: if we build our security, our hope, our identity, on our wealth we run the risk of discovering, as my friend did long ago, that we simply live at higher and higher levels of poverty. But if we build our security on the love of God; the word of God; and the promises of God; we have a strong and safe tower of protection.

Pastor Brian Coffey