“Then Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:23
As Jesus was walking and teaching a young man wanted to know what it would take to get into heaven. Jesus starts out with telling him to keep all the commandments. The man says that he does. Then Jesus tells him to sell all he has and give it away, then follow Him. The man went away sad.
Now, Jesus appears to be singling out rich people. He basically says that they will have a hard time getting into heaven. No other person is told that they will have a hard time getting into heaven.
What makes being rich harder to get into heaven? There are some people who will try to say that being rich is sinful and not of God. Yet, no where is the Bible does it say you must not have wealth.
The challenge for rich people, and all others, is where they put their trust. Someone who has great wealth often puts his trust in that wealth or his ability to make that wealth. This is where the challenge of getting into heaven occurs.
As a believer you are to trust in only one person and no other or other thing. That person is Jesus.
Everything you have is on loan from God. God is the only one who really owns anything, and He owns it all. God is the one who made everything, including you.
With this in mind, you must trust only Him. Do not allow yourself to be caught up in the things of this world. Wealth is not bad. God uses money to spread His Gospel message around the world; to build churches; to print Bibles; and to provide for the widows and orphans.
Wealth is to be used, not hoarded and trusted.
In this way, it becomes difficult for the wealthy to get into heaven. It is hard to not trust their wealth.
In the same way, each person has a difficult time getting into heaven. Each person must fully trust in Jesus alone to get into heaven.
Where is your trust today?
I pray today that you will trust fully in Jesus alone; that you will realize that God owns everything; that you will be a good steward with what God has blessed you with; that you will realize that all you have is a blessing from God that can be taken away; and that you will use what God has given you to build His kingdom.
Leave a Reply