Many People Have Spiritual Failures in Their Material Success

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It's a common misconception that if the person is living with so much wealth then that person is necessarily right with God. I remembered some of the worst assumptions was that Manny Pacquiao's conversion to Christianity was the main cause of why he lost some of his battles. Some self-proclaimed Marian visionary even declared she saw Mary speak of Pacquiao's loss though the Vatican hasn't even acknowledged it to be a legitimate apparition. I don't have any reason to believe it to be a message from God either.

Now take a look at the parable of the rich fool. Luke 12:16-21 says the following:
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

So what's the problem with the rich fool? It wasn't about him being rich but his attitude towards riches. The problem is all about how many people fail to acknowledge God allows them to have abundance but it's not theirs. I thought about the situation where Potiphar an unbeliever was blessed for the sake of Joseph. Some people become rich but only see themselves in their blessings. It seems to be that God is unfair by allowing many godless people to get wealth but that wealth is only temporary. Psalm 49:16-17 tells us all the worldly wealth is just temporary. A lot of people have huge milestones but when they die they leave it behind for the next generation. The rich fool forgot that he couldn't have accumulated that wealth if it wasn't for God. The problem is no different today when rich atheists fail to recognize that they only got wealth based on the sovereignty of God and that they are still alive today because He is still giving them the chance to repent.

The problem would be asked in Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36 and Luke 9:25 in asking what will it gain anyone to gain the whole world but lose one's soul. While having wealth is not wrong but the problem is when one is fixated with accumulating wealth. The problem is that many people today are so preoccupied with wealth that they have no time for God. Do you remember the rich young ruler and Jesus in  Matthew 19:16–23, Mark 10:17–22, and Luke 18:18–23? If you think of it the lesson is that how hard it is to those who trust in their riches. Some rich people think that because they got rich by their own hands that surely that they can work towards eternal riches. But the problem is that eternal riches can never be gotten by one's own effort but by God's grace.

The problem of the rich young ruler can also be true with many people and their false religion. How many people enjoy staying in their false religion because it's good for business? I have met some who joined the Freemasons because it's good for financial business. What's also ironic is that while some Roman Catholics use the account of Jesus and the rich young ruler to try and refute salvation by faith alone but they love staying in their parishes because it's good for business. The problem is that while they are financially prosperous but their families are falling apart. How many people live with so much money but they can't even take care of their families? While not all rich people are doomed to have bad families but most are not because of riches but because of their attitude towards riches. 1 Timothy 6:10 warns that the love of material wealth is the root of all evil in today's society.

This is not the call to become materially poor. Proverbs 30:7-9 has the prayer of asking for neither poverty nor riches. The prayer is that one should not ask for too much riches because it's easy to forget God. The other request is not to become poor lest one would be easily recruited into criminal activities as a way to sustain one's living. To get the riches in Heaven one must be spiritually poor which leads to other blessings (Matthew 5:1-12). Spiritually poverty is recognizing God's power and that wealth is only stewardship. This leads to godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10), a pure heart, meekness, hungering and thirsting for genuine righteousness, having an attitude of mercy, one becomes a peacemaker as a result and that one gets blessed for being persecuted falsely for righteousness' sake.

The Christian life has never been a call to become billionaires. That concept is nowhere in the Bible. How many have been living good Christian lives and are suffering right now? Others are probably starving beggars because they were disowned for receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Yet there is an infinite value after the high cost of getting saved. Getting saved is a free gift but the high cost comes after that. The high cost is one can get in trouble with the world (John 15:18-19, James 4:4), one can get disowned, the works salvation crowd hates the message that salvation is a free gift, there's going to be mockery. But there's always the count that any Christian will be willing to pay by the grace of God. The infinite value is the true riches in Heaven where they are the reward for following the difficult path of Christianity (Matthew 16:19-20).

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