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o you feel that life is just one long pursuit of happiness? You see, you want and you buy or do. Maybe you want the fastest car, the best paid job, the most attractive partner, the newest gadgets, the largest music collection, the most social media friends or the best-kept garden on the street. Maybe you long to be the most talented musician, the cleverest member of the quiz team, the one whose blogs gather the most followers or the best-dressed person at work. Or you desperately want to be like someone you admire—a friend, an actor, a music star or a sports personality. Do you set your heart on things to the extent that you can’t rest until you have them? Are you disappointed with what you have and always want that extra something? Sometimes you may feel as if everything would be better if you could just have that next thing, but when you get it your craving moves on to something else. Why?
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t’s probably true that we have never had the same level of choice as we do today. Product advertising, faster internet, more television channels, bigger supermarkets, quicker transport, greater scientific advancements and wider communication have brought the whole world within our reach. Our everyday lives are filled with more options than ever before. Yet while the range of choices might be changing, the desire for more is as old as the hills. We’ve always craved that little something extra because we’re convinced that having more will ultimately bring us happiness. But even our greatest acquisitions don’t seem to make us happy for long. Is lasting contentment really possible? To get to the heart of the issue, we’ve got to get past the possessions and down to the real
motivation. What makes us tick? What do we really want? The historian Luke (in Luke chapter 12 in the Bible) tells us of a time when Jesus met a man who wanted more—and wanted it now. Jesus told this man a simple story to show what life should really be about: There was once a rich farmer who had a good life—his own business, some financial security and a steady income. Then one year he had a bumper harvest that made him even richer. He’d hit the big time! So he made plans for even bigger barns, bigger crops and a bigger bank balance. He believed that with more he could enjoy a life of leisure and luxury for years to come. Then he would be able to say, “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19). The man in this story believed he would only be happy when he had acquired all those things. But when has enough ever been enough?
Jesus told this story about the farmer to illustrate a point: the rich man believed that pursuing possessions and growing his wealth would bring him contentment and make his life complete, but he was wrong. The man misunderstood what life is really all about. When we look for contentment in things that will never satisfy, what we want is not necessarily what we need. Perhaps this is why Jesus summed up the lesson of his story by saying, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Jesus’ conclusion that there’s more to life than just possessions is always relevant, whether for the farmer in this story or for us 2,000 years later. Glance at the newspapers and you’ll see many wealthy but dissatisfied TV personalities, film stars, sportsmen and musicians. Could it be that they are trying to scratch an itch they just can’t satisfy?
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he story in Luke’s account closed with God rebuking the farmer: “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God” (v.20). God’s rebuke clearly shows how great the danger is when we let the pursuit of status and possessions absorb us. If we allow any other person or thing to have first place in our lives, our focus is sadly wrong. Like the man in Jesus’ story, we let our misguided priorities drive our lives. We treasure things that can’t satisfy us and don’t last. They may even be good things, but they’re not what life is really about. The Bible tells us that our relationship with God should be our priority, for only that lasts forever. Yet our central motivation seems to be to gain as much for ourselves as we can. Think about the rich man in Jesus’ story. His number one aim in life was to get the things he wanted. But Jesus said he’d missed what really matters.
“This is how it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.” Instead of putting his relationship with God at the centre of every aspect of his life, he placed riches at the centre. His life had become all about himself and his own comfort, wellbeing, fame and ambition. It wasn’t the man’s possessions that concerned Jesus; it was his attitude. He told the people there is no lasting satisfaction in such an attitude or in the life that flows from it. When our life on earth is over, what good will our possessions, status or ambitions be? They don’t last forever. The rich man learned that for himself, and Jesus used that to show us the only real alternative. His goal for our life is that we be “rich towards God”—living life with and for God in the way God intended. We tend to think that the world revolves around us and that we can do whatever we wish and accumulate whatever we want. But the Bible gives us a very different view of the world. It tells us that God created the entire world—from the big to the small, from the stars and the planets to you and me. He crafted every
last detail. He made it, sustains it and it is His to rule over—including life and death. We might like to think that we are number one, but God is clearly in charge. So to ignore God by making anything else number one in our lives is a great mistake. Yet that is what we have done to Him. Left to our own devices, we will never become “rich towards God”. The Bible calls this attitude sin. At its core, sin is thinking that God doesn’t have the right to rule this world but that we do. And this is the biggest mistake we could ever make. Sin shows itself in all sorts of ways. It might be in the way we develop our relationships, in the language we use or in the way we talk behind people’s backs. It might be the thoughts we have in the quiet of our own minds or the way we react in anger when things don’t go our way. Or it might be something we find easy to justify, such as pursuing a comfortable life or possessions over pursuing God’s purpose for us. All of these can reveal an attitude out of step with what pleases God and with what will ultimately satisfy us and give us the happiness we seek.
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ust a short time later in Luke chapter 12, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v.34). Jesus wasn’t talking about where we bank or invest our money. In effect He was asking, “What’s really precious in your life?” What do you value most in your life? Whatever it is, can it fix your greatest problem of a broken relationship with God? The Bible is 100% clear on this—only Jesus can fix our relationship with God. Only Jesus deserves to be our number one priority. Most of us measure success in terms of whether we get what we want. But as we’ve seen, what we want is not always best. What we need is so much more important. What we really need—more than anything this world has to offer—is for our relationship with God to be fixed. And that is only possible through Jesus. In His great kindness, God loves us even though we reject Him. We know He loves us because of what He sent
Jesus to do. Jesus Christ didn’t simply teach; He died for us. When the nails were hammered through His body and into the cross, when He lay dead in a tomb for three days and when He rose back to life, He did so for us. Even though He was sinless and perfect and didn’t deserve to die, Jesus paid the price for all our sin. He has done everything necessary to repair our relationship with God once and for all. He offers us a real and lasting relationship with God, which is life as it’s meant to be. For all who believe, the relationship is restored. Bottom line: life is not about what we have or what we want. Rather, life is all about God and His rule and reign in this world and in our lives. He alone is the source of life. He alone gives meaning to life. Living with God means there is a moment-by-moment authority and purpose in our lives far greater than us. If you are realising this for the first time and want Jesus to be the number one priority in your life, it will mean doing two things.
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irstly, you have to be willing to stop loving and trusting those things that don’t last. Secondly, you have to start loving and trusting the only One who will truly last forever. That means trusting God with all your heart, as He deserves. Only He offers fulfilment that will last forever. What will you commit your life to—the things that will perish, or to God, the only eternal One? If you agree that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” but in a relationship with God, this can be the most significant day of your life. Your relationship with God can be put right today. The following prayer expresses your sorrow to God for trying to build a life without Him, thanks Him for sending Jesus to die the death our sins deserve and asks Him to help you live for Him instead. Dear God, I am deeply sorry for all the ways in which I’ve tried to build my life without You, the very centre of the universe. Thank You so much for loving me in spite of my sin. Thank You for sending Jesus to die for the sake of my sin so that my relationship with You can be rebuilt. Please help me to live for You with my whole life from this day forward. If you feel this is something you are ready to say to God, then we want to encourage you to make contact with a local church or any Christians you may know. They will be able to help you think more about what it means to give your life to Jesus. New life with Him isn’t problem free, but He gives everyone who trusts Him true and lasting satisfaction and meaning. You can read more in the Bible about how God loves us through Jesus Christ. Our Daily Bread Ministries produces Bible-based resources that can help you think about your relationship with Him and help you trust Him more each day. Just visit us at ourdailybread.org to find out all the different resources we have available.
Scripture taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved. © 2017 by Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved. Printed in the United Kingdom
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