GIVE ME MORE ! ! ! Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. – 1 Timothy 6:6-10. When we are young with all of life stretched out before us, and even when we get a bit older, we sometimes think that if we could just get our hands on enough money we would be set for life. We could have the best of everything, buy all the stuff that goes to make life comfortable, overcome all our problems and have lots of friends. People will go to all sorts of lengths to achieve this goal – sometimes even destructive things such as drug dealing, burglary and fraud. In the process they ruin their own lives and often the lives of others. This way of thinking is called materialism and it is one of the most prominent and harmful characteristics of our present-day society. But the Bible (which is God’s Word to us) tells us that this idea is wrong! Money and all the things it can buy is not the most important thing in life. I have talked to lots of people with plenty of money and they will tell you it is not the answer to life’s greatest need. It does not bring lasting satisfaction and many of these people are still looking for something that will bring them real peace and happiness. It may bring a certain amount of security in this life, but it does not prepare us for eternity and to meet God. It is true that we do need some money in order to provide our daily necessities. But if we make it the main goal of our lives we will surely be disillusioned. The richest man who ever lived was King Solomon and many of the things that he said have been recorded in the Bible. He said, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired!” (Ecclesiastes 2:10). Imagine that! Solomon had so much money there was absolutely nothing in the world he could not buy. Nothing – except peace, lasting joy, satisfaction and a worthwhile purpose for living. This is why he went on to say, “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
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