The Problem That Many People Are Too Preoccupied with Money to Think About God

Nothing is wrong with getting engaged with businesses otherwise basic needs will not be met. If there were no businesses involved then there would be nothing to meet basic needs. You certainly need to have a PC and a printer to do office work. You certainly need a mobile phone these days to keep in touch with more ease. We certainly need businesses to buy our food and to get our water supply purified so it is safe to drink. The problem is not engaging in business or being rich but when a person's main occupation is just doing business and becoming richer. God ordained businesses but men pervert God's ordinances.

It is very easy to say, "Well nobody gets rich materially by reading the Bible." I agree with that because if that were true then many men of God today would be living in mansions. False pastors who preach prosperity get so rich so easily. The Vatican today has more money than what the world's richest men have and not even all their wealth could surpass it. While wise stewardship of money with stuff like saving money for a rainy day, investing your money, gaining profit is part of the business but the Bible's ultimate aim has not been all about material wealth. Many people today have material wealth but they do not have Jesus Christ. The rich young ruler's problem was not having a lot of possessions but his self-righteousness and greed. Many people today like the rich young ruler care more about their money and self-righteousness rather than Jesus. Material wealth is never an indicator you are right with God. You can have all the wealth in the world or none of it and still be antagonized by God.

It is very easy to say, "I will be satisfied when I have billions." but after billions have been made the amount just keeps getting bigger and bigger. While it is necessary to aim high but the problem is when you are not aiming high for the glory of God and instead of aiming high for your self-glorification. Ecclesiastes 5:10 warns,"He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity." Do you notice many wealthy people end up dying miserably? The problem was not their wealth per se and nothing is wrong with having wealth if it was accumulated honestly and with integrity. If God decided to entrust me with honestly gained billions then why not? But the problem comes in not when wealth comes in but when the person is controlled by wealth. Money is a good servant but a horrible master. Certainly, we all need money to make ends meet in this world but tragedy comes when people care too much about money. It is not about money but it is about the fact people are controlled by their love for money (1 Timothy 6:10).

Many people even dare to skip ethics and morality for money. They can say that ethics and morality will not make you rich. It is a case to case basis. It is true that cheating may make a person materially rich, one can take advantage of countries where the corruption index is very high, pay the government with money under the table but God is not mocked. You may go ahead and get rid of costly but proper waste disposal methods at the cost of others. The problem comes in that when people who are preoccupied with money end up realizing they may have all the money in the world but money cannot be eaten. What then becomes the use of having a lot of money when in the long run you could no longer enjoy it because you threw God out of your life for pleasure and love for sin? Many wealthy people can die from horrible deaths all because they spent their money on sinful pleasures. Much developed cancer from stress because they were too focused on money and many families die because they put money above God.

Others think that their money will certainly get them to Heaven like many wealthy Roman Catholics tend to think that way. It is really something to think about how they think that they can just pay the priests, request masses, and tell their relatives to keep the masses for the dead going and going to the level of absurdity. I remembered reading memos that some people even kept asking for masses for people who had died so many years ago and the masses have not ended. Somebody died decades ago and until today the masses have not ended. Hebrews 9:27 makes it clear that as it is appointed unto man once to die but after this the Judgment. No amount of wealth can ever redeem anyone. The whole idea of Purgatory is a sham that has misled people in so many ways. You can go ahead and pay for masses but when the person is in Hell for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ then the person will have no second chance whatsoever. The rich man went to Hell and had no chance of redemption. It was not his wealth but his unbelief that sent him to Hell.

Proverbs 20:7-9 says, "Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." It is important to work hard, earn money, be diligent, save money, invest money with every legitimate means possible but in all of that do it for God's glory. When you get wealthy then consider it is God giving you more responsibility to be different from wealthy people who are not right with God. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with wanting to get out of poverty but it becomes wrong when you get out of poverty by dishonest gains. As said, it neither gives me poverty nor riches but let me meet all my basic needs.