True Fortunes
Uncle Bud Robinson had a way with words, and his quotes and sermons really give us much to think about. Here’s another quote of his that I really found helpful: “The man that has God for his Father, and Jesus Christ for his Saviour, the Holy Ghost for his abiding comforter and the redeemed saints of all the ages for his brothers and sisters, the angels for his companions and Heaven for his eternal home, thank God, his fortune is made.”
What would it take for you to consider yourself rich? A certain amount of money? Certain possessions? Or to put it another way, what would make you consider yourself to have come into great fortune?
True Wealth Found
Many people feel that their purpose in life is to make a great fortune. To become as wealthy as they can. They put great effort and passion into the pursuit of wealth. Now, money is not evil. Money is a good gift through which God can provide many wonderful things for us. But it’s when money has become our love that we are on dangerous ground.
A few months back I shared a devotion about Job and his claim to be blameless, and one of the things he said was this: “if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained… I would have been unfaithful to God on high” (Job 31:25,28 NIV11). Job knew that rejoicing in his wealth was a sin. Because it is God alone who deserves our deepest affections and worship.
Uncle Bud’s quote today reminds us that true wealth, real wealth, is not about money. In fact, Christians who have embraced Jesus’ call in life come to know a different type of wealth, which Jesus talks about in Mark 10:29-31. Jesus had just said how difficult it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of God, but that with God all things are possible. Peter pipes up and says to Jesus “we have left everything to follow you!” and Jesus replies by saying “Truly I tell you… no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come.” (Mark 10:29-31 NIV11)
True Riches Revealed
So Jesus was saying that people who sacrifice for Him receive blessings in return. And this is what Uncle Bud was getting at here – he was saying that Christ-followers are actually in possession of great fortunes because God – Father, Son and Spirit – are all a part of the Christian’s life, and every Christian is a brother or sister, and every angel is a companion, and heaven is our home – what a fortune! What a fortune to be in possession of.
Do you know how rich you are, as a child of God? In Proverbs 8, God (who is called Wisdom in this passage) says “I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full” (Proverbs 8:20-21 NIV11). Amen to that – those who embrace God and His wisdom have a rich inheritance and have their treasuries full, because theirs is a fortune that only God can give.
Walk into your day knowing that you own a great fortune – not in your bank balance necessarily, but in a rich relationship with God and his creation.
