James 1:10-11a
New American Standard Version
10 and let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed;
Pastor’s Paraphrase
Conversely, the believer who has accumulated a great deal of this world’s goods should not become prideful of his position in society but be reminded that all his things and his own earthly life will fade and die like a wildflower on the roadside and that only his spiritual possessions received by grace will endure.
“How does this help me become more like Him?”
I remember my first brand new car. I was a freshman in college and making the one hour plus drive from the campus to my home in Northeast Houston on a regular basis. The car that I had driven in high school was an older model and I convinced myself (and my folks) that I really needed a new car that would be dependable. I don’t know if that logic was accurate or just rationalization to purchase what I wanted but I bought that new car nonetheless – a brand new 1968 Mustang! It was a deep blue and it drove like a dream. I can still remember that new car smell and how bright and shiny it was inside and out.
I drove that car throughout my college years and enjoyed it thoroughly. However, as the years went by, the new car smell faded and the paint got an occasional scratch here and there. I was in an accident that didn’t hurt me too much but necessitated major body repair for the Mustang and it never looked quite the same. I loaned it to a friend once (big mistake) and he blew the engine! I eventually sold it and bought a newer and more dependable source of transportation (another big mistake).
This would be an exceptionally sad story except that it is the common reality of all material possessions – the new quickly fades and eventually what was once shiny and bright ends up on the junk heap or scheduled for demolition. Antiques and restoration projects notwithstanding, I think you can understand what I am trying to convey – material things don’t last forever. This doesn’t mean that we should not enjoy them while they are new and throughout their useful life – we should. Every good thing is a gift from God. But what we must not do is to allow them to become our focus in life or begin to place our trust in what we own rather than Who owns us.
The older I get, the more I realize how fleeting this life is. Though we should live every day to its fullest with thankful hearts that God has given it to us – even this earthly life of ours will some day come to its designed end. We must not allow the temporary possession of material things to make us prideful. We must hold them loosely with thankful hearts, knowing there will come a time when we will lay them all down to receive from our Lord that which will never outlive its usefulness. When we learn to find our greatest joy in Heavenly things, all these earthly things that our Great Provider chooses to place in our hands become like a bowl of ice cream on a hot summer day – sweet to the taste and enjoyable for a moment but so quickly gone.
Has God given you material blessings? Enjoy them with gratitude in your heart to Him. Be grateful for them but not proud of them. What good would ice cream be if we had no home to go to at the end of the day? Long after those things have been relegated to the scrap heap and faded into memory, you will enjoy the unfading glory of eternal riches. Earthly things will eventually fade away to uselessness and be discarded but when we’ve been with Him ten million years, the gifts of His grace will still be shiny and new!
“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”
Pray that the Lord would give you gratitude for earthly treasures while reminding you how temporary they are. Thank Him for those things that are being stored up for you in the land where we’ll never grow old. Ask Him to help you know each day how to store up treasure in Heaven.
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