Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Our culture tells us that wealth and prosperity are the keys that unlock the door to a happy and fulfilling life. The more rich and successful you are, it will lead to true happiness. But if this is true, then how do we grapple with the fact that there have been well-known celebrities and other high profile people who had it all, but they ended their lives by suicide. So we need to ask ourselves the question, “Does wealth and fame really lead to lasting contentment?”

There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy and acquiring material possessions. The underlying problem is when you begin to dominate and idolize these things thinking they will lead to your ultimate satisfaction. Unfortunately, this is a faslse perception. No earthly possession, person, relationship, nor anything for that matter will bring you true fulfillment. Only JESUS Can! Entering in and maintaining a personal relationship with Him will bring you true joy and happiness. In John 4, Jesus told the Samaritan woman who had five husbands in vs 13b-14, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

In other words:

-If you and I drink from the fountain of wealth and material possessions, we will thirst again.

-If you and I drink from the fountain of popularity (a need to be known or admired by others), we will thirst again.

-If you and I drink from the fountain of recognition (a need for acknowledgment or affirmation by others), we will thirst again.

-If you and I drink from the fountain of relationships (idolizing, envying, and/or placing them above Christ), we will thirst again.

-If you and I drink from the fountain of our own desires, life goals, ambitions, and our will to be done vs. God’s will, we will most definitely thirst again.

But when we thirst for Jesus, His Word, and embrace a relationship with Him, we will never thirst again.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with acquiring wealth and maintaining healthy relationships. As believers, we need each other. Hebrews 10:24-25 exhorts us: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Going back to our possessions: Our sources of income whether it’s our salary, pension, investments, mutual funds and everything that the Lord has entrusted to us should be utilized for His glory. You and I shouldn’t misappropriate or misuse these financial resources. We are called to be good stewards over what God has given to us.

Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

As Christians, we also have an obligation to faithfully pay our tithes and bring our offerings to God. Our priority should be to advance God’s Kingdom with the finances He has entrusted to us. We shouldn’t be income hoarders, but cheerful givers to His work.

Malachi 3:8, & 10 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. vs 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

2 Corinthians 9:7 So let each one give as He purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

A tithe is 10% of your income. This is the standard. If you make $500.00, your tithe is $50.00. If you make $1,000.00, your tithe is $100.00. If you make $5,000.00, your tithe portion is $500.00. And so forth. This may be a financial hardship for some. If so, I encourage you to pray and ask God on what amount you should allocate towards His kingdom. Your giving is between you and the Lord!

Ladies, my exhortation to you is to lay up eternal and lasting treasures in Heaven that will never fade away. If God has blessed you with any type of resources whether it’s financial or otherwise, big or small, be a wise steward and diligently give to the house of God for the advancement of His kingdom.

Psalm 62:10b If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

If we sow bountifully, we will also reap bountifully (2 Corinthians 9:6b). God is faithful and He loves you very much. He will reward you for your obedience in giving.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”