What can a billion dollars do?

The net worth of the world's richest person is 400B, so says Google. Other billionaires are listed. Write a one followed by nine zeros, you get 1,000,000,000 = one billion! Think of it as a thousand million to better grasp its enormity. 

Or try this: Let 250 sheets of paper, about 1 inch thick, represents 1 million. How tall would the stack have to be to represent 1 billion ? Since 1 million equals 1 inch, so 1 billion would be 1000 times that, or a stack of paper 1000 inches tall. This is 83 feet, four inches illustrating a billion. This is as tall as an 8 story building! Imagine a city with 400 of those buildings.

Spoiler alert… While the combined money of the world’s billionaires would solve world poverty, what is it doing for those who have it? While money can buy a lot of things, it cannot benefit anyone who is dead. 

If that sounds like the rationale of someone who wishes to be rich, it does not describe those who take God seriously. I can remember wanting to have more money. I had many bills to pay and not having the funds, yet God provided. The first was $100 rent due on a propane tank. No money. But I received a short letter in the mail from someone I didn’t know who wanted me to paint a portrait of her dog. She included payment, which never happens, and it was $105, enough for the tank, the canvas and postage to mail the painting. Since that, I stopped worrying  about finances or running short. 

He has also shown me the dangers of making money a priority, even as He has always taken care of all my financial needs. 

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

The next verses tell me to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” and get a grasp on eternal life. This life is short and all of us are terminal. It is not sinful to have money, but to love it… 

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17–19)

Some rich people do that; others not so much. Jesus offers a far better goal than a fat bank account. He says:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . . And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? . . . . But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:21–33)

A sheet of paper can also represent the brevity of life here. However, a stack that illustrates eternal life has no ending. It reaches to heaven and beyond. While I am here, I can use the funds God supplies to bless those in need because hoarding it for myself is folly. Only the spiritually blind are unable to acknowledge that they cannot take it with them.

PRAY: Jesus, this freedom from any desire to accumulate wealth is from You. You were given what You needed, trusting Your Father for it without any greed or desire for even one cent of it. Keep my focus off money and on You, trusting You to take care of me, and to save me from the sin of loving money.

How to view this messy world. . . .

We listen and watch the folly happening in the world and are dismayed, yet if I can keep my mind on the wonder of God, it is easier to not be bothered by it all. For one thing, those who strive for more money than even a large family could ever spend in their lifetime, fail to think about that last word — lifetime. What benefit is billions or power when someone turns to dust in his grave? What does it do for someone to spurn God for their own will to be done? What does  God think of all this:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2:1–4)

Those who mock God are mocked by God, forgetting or neglecting to know that He numbers the stars, even named them. Piper offers these statistics:

“The earth. . . .  is a small planet revolving around a star called the sun which has a volume 1.3 million times that of the earth. There are stars a million times brighter than the sun. There are about a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is one hundred thousand light years across. (A light year is six million million miles.) The sun travels about 155 miles per second, and so it would take two hundred million years to make a single revolution on its orbit in the Milky Way. There are millions of other galaxies besides ours.”

And God placed them there and rules their orbits. Every detail of creation is subject to the law of God and to His commands. What do a few mere humans think when they grab for power? This God can rob them of their breath in an instant. While they delight in the chaos they create, God laughs.

Another psalm mocks the idea that “those with the most toys wins.” I deliberately left out part of this bumper sticker folly, for the Word of God says most clearly what happens to them:

Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit. For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names. Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish. (Psalm 49:5–12)

No matter how much money is made legitimately, or by robbing a bank, or by insider trading, or by any other method, that money is useless to those who gained it for greed. The righeous can escape guilt in being generous to the poor, but both good and bad, no rich man can escape the consequences of being a mere human.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23–24) Is this not because those who are rich tend to suppose that they can get what they want because their wealth proves that God is blessing them — which is totally opposed to what the gospel says. We are saved by grace, never our financial or worldly status.

Jesus also tells such who seek wealth: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:24) Money may get them all it will buy, but that is all they will get. Not only that, hoarding it for themselves is folly because, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” (1 Timothy 6:9) There is more…

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. (James 5:1–2)
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:17)

PRAY: Lord, You tell me to pray for people who are “in high positions” and have influence that can ruin lives. They need wisdom and mercy more than being eliminated. With confidence, I just pray that Your will is done — for them and for those who suffer because of the chaos being created by their priority in gods that have no power over the stars.

Does God want me to be rich?

Judges 12; Jeremiah 25; Mark 11; Acts 16

I’ve been wondering if God is using this pandemic to get religious people to rethink or clarify their ideas about what is commonly called the “prosperity gospel.” One of my friends has been challenged. She said, “If God wants everyone to be rich, what about the Christians who live in poor countries?”

I found a magazine that reviews this theology and gives some insight into the conflicting ideas. It says there is a difference between ‘prosperity theology’ and the biblical teaching on prosperity. The first teaches that God always blesses his people materially when they have strong faith and are obedient. The focus is that God rewards faith with pleasing consequences in daily life. This includes physical healing and any other difficulties related to well-being. The second teaching emphasizes the responsibilities of successful or prosperous Christians to use their wealth in ways that glorify God and alleviate any suffering of others.

The Old Testament obviously uses physical situations to teach His people the importance of obedience. If they did His will, they would prosper. If not, they would suffer in some way. The passages on blessings and curses are clear that this is like parents using consequences to teach their children. Yet it is more than that. The Fall into sin made obedience impossible. The heart of man is, as the Bible says, bent on doing its own thing. Sin separates us from God and the OT is the grim history of His people wanting at times to obey but even God’s good rewards were never enough to keep them in that frame of mind. Sin ruined everything.

However in the NT, the teacher is the Holy Spirit, not in a general sense but through a personal relationship that gives believers a new heart. The people of God, through faith and a new birth, are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ who not only motivates but enables obedience that a punish/reward system could not. In other words, the blessing produces faith and obedience, not the other way around.

It seems that the prosperity theology says we must earn God’s goodness rather than respond to it. However, the Bible teaches that God’s blessing is freely given to those who realize and admit that they cannot earn them or do anything to change their hearts or their condition. Like the publican who claimed no merit, God justifies us in mercy and by grace through faith; we cannot boast.

As for obedience resulting in ‘the good life’ consider Christ. If this theology is true then Jesus should have had a big home, wealth and great popularity. His obedience would have given Him well-being not hatred or misunderstanding, and certainly not death on a cross. He said, “Not my will, but Your will be done” and the will of God was that He should suffer and die. He told his followers to expect some of the same treatment.

A few verses come to mind. Solomon wrote, “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.” (Proverbs 15:16). The NT affirms how prosperity can be a trap: “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (1 Timothy 6:6–10)

Rather than seeking riches, the Bible convinces me that I need a different focus. As Paul said:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13)

APPLY: Keep my eyes on Jesus. He had nothing, even became poor for my sake, yet lived a sinless life and now reigns in glory. My hope is not in this brief life nor the pleasures God may give me here but on Jesus and the joy set before me as I strive against sin and selfishness.