Are You Rich Toward God?
God loved, saved and redeemed us so that we may have a successful life! This week, we’ve begun to contemplate on the seven areas of life that we need to focus on for success and today, we’ll dive into the first area, which is spiritual growth.
People usually give the least importance to spiritual growth. Going to church every week without fail and reading the Bible everyday need not be a sign of spiritual growth.
Luke 12:16-21 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Many people who’ve chased money have ended up leading a miserable life having lost their peace, joy, family, etc. If we go after God, money will follow us; but if we go after money, God will not come after us. Just as we learnt the past two weeks, if the Lord is indeed your Shepherd, you will lack nothing in life; for He is the Source and He shall supply for all your needs.
Luke 1:80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
After a silent period of 400 years, God raised John the Baptist as a powerful prophet, who was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth in their old age and came into the scene with a bull-dozer anointing and ministered ferociously, addressing the crowd as ‘brood of vipers’!
Luke 3:7-9 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
Here, we see two boys who had an age gap of just 6 months growing spiritually for 30 years before they came into public ministry and in this context, John the Baptist is the ‘Waymaker‘ and Jesus is the ‘Way’.
1 Samuel 2:26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with people.
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Faith, hope and love are eternal riches of which hope is the goal-setter, faith is the goal-getter and love is the motivator.
Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Leviticus 19:17,18 Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
We all have so much unwanted stuff within us which we need to unload, so that we may truly love and honour God with our very own lives.
People usually give the least importance to spiritual growth. Going to church every week without fail and reading the Bible everyday need not be a sign of spiritual growth.
Luke 12:16-21 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Many people who’ve chased money have ended up leading a miserable life having lost their peace, joy, family, etc. If we go after God, money will follow us; but if we go after money, God will not come after us. Just as we learnt the past two weeks, if the Lord is indeed your Shepherd, you will lack nothing in life; for He is the Source and He shall supply for all your needs.
Luke 1:80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
After a silent period of 400 years, God raised John the Baptist as a powerful prophet, who was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth in their old age and came into the scene with a bull-dozer anointing and ministered ferociously, addressing the crowd as ‘brood of vipers’!
Luke 3:7-9 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
Here, we see two boys who had an age gap of just 6 months growing spiritually for 30 years before they came into public ministry and in this context, John the Baptist is the ‘Waymaker‘ and Jesus is the ‘Way’.
1 Samuel 2:26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with people.
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Faith, hope and love are eternal riches of which hope is the goal-setter, faith is the goal-getter and love is the motivator.
Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Leviticus 19:17,18 Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
We all have so much unwanted stuff within us which we need to unload, so that we may truly love and honour God with our very own lives.
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