| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Deep Discipleship” Our Bible verse for today: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15 (NIV) Our thought for today: “Live out of your true abundance” I’m a blessed man. I get to do something I love for a living. I love being a pastor and I find my work spiritually rich and rewarding. True, it is also busy and demanding, sometimes stressful, but overall, it is a rich and rewarding experience. More than once over the years, when our treasurer handed me my paycheck I smiled and said, “All this fun and they pay me too? How lucky can a guy get?” I’m grateful that the church is able to pay me well, but I also realize that the paycheck is not the real payoff. It’s the spiritual blessing of the work that makes it such a rich and rewarding experience. Sadly, not everyone can say that. Many people willingly accept decades in a stress-filled, demanding, all-consuming career that they don’t really like simply because it pays well. In their case they have succumbed to the allure of materialism and the mistaken belief that happiness is found in possessing material things – and the more you have the happier you will be. But it just isn’t so. Jesus Himself told us so in Luke 12:15. Greed and materialism is a deceptive trap that consumes your life and slowly kills your soul. A good life is not measured by what fills your wallet, your bank account, your closet, or your garage. A good life is measured by what fills your heart. This is what the Apostle Paul meant in Galatians 5:22-23 when he told us about the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” If your heart, and therefore your life, is filled with those things, yours will be a truly blessed life and that will be true regardless of the size of our paycheck. There’s nothing inherently wrong with earning a nice salary and having nice things. We just need to remember that spiritual riches are the true riches. That is our true abundance. We still need to work because we need an income. And we should work hard and well, but we must do so with the understanding that as a child of God and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, our true wealth is spiritual not material. The abundance we need will be found in our heart not in our bank account. I encourage you to focus your life first and foremost on your relationship with Christ. Then, live out of your true abundance – the spiritual riches that are yours in Christ. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville |
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