The dangers of wealth Luke 12:13-31 (with additions)

It's not that no one wealth will enter the realm of God. But there is a warning to those with money in this passage (and in many other passages). That warning is don't let dollars distract you from what is really important. One's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions. (Luke 12:15) Well… if one's life is in those possessions there is a need to change.

But deciding about wealth is not unimportant; it's just not the most important thing. Or, perhaps, it is better to say we should decide that wealth is not the most important things in our life. We should choose God over wealth. We should choose to work for the realm of God rather than for property and money.

The question we need to ask is 'where is our heart focused?' For some of us the answer will be prestige. For others the answer will be possessions. Still others will answer – money. And there are as many different answers as there are people. Somehow all of us sooner or later will let our desires for something other than God rule our heart.

But when we let something other than God rule our heart we can look, examine, repent. That is we can change and seek God once again. We can let the distractions fade away and look to serving and enjoying God. An abundance of possessions may or may not pass away before our life ends, but a life lived in the path of God will find completion even without toys with which to play.

Luke 12:13-31

[13] Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.' [14] But he said to him, Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you? [15] And he said to them, Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. [16] Then he told them a parable: The land of a rich man produced abundantly. [17] And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' [18] Then he said, I will do this:

I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. [19] And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." [20] But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? '

[21] So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.

[22] He said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. [23] For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. [24] Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! [25] And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? [26] If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? [27] Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. [28] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you -- you of little faith! [29] And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. [30] For it is the nat!
ions of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. [31] Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."