Proverbs 30.7-9
O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.
Just right
Having the right amount of something is critical. Too much salt in a recipe will ruin it, but not enough and the taste is bland. Too much rain causes floods and destruction, not enough produces drought and famine. We constantly live within a critical window of “just right”. From minute details to the distance the earth is from the sun, having it “just right” is essential to our survival.
Living in the “just right” is not only important in the areas of life outside of our control, it is imperative for our choices and attitudes. The writer of Proverbs foresaw the danger of too much wealth and pleasure in life; it took him away from God. He also saw the danger in not having enough; it caused him to steal. Having just the right amount kept life in balance.
Paul urges us to go even further than the writer of Proverbs. In Philippians 4:12 he notes he has learned to be content in every situation whether he had much or little. Paul had shifted paradigms. Instead of life defining Paul’s attitude, Paul defined life through his faith in God. Little or much, God was going to be enough. The niceties of life, or lack of them, lost their power over Paul because he found meaning through something greater. In these days of economic turmoil it is a great comfort to know that our situation, station, or circumstances do not need to define us, we can define them through Christ.
Thank you Jesus for freeing me from the grip of circumstances. I confess my immediate reaction is often more a reaction to my situation than your faithfulness, but in your grace, you show me how to move past that initial feeling into a right perspective on life. I pray that you would help me to react according to your faithfulness primarily instead of secondarily. - Dan Jones
2 comments:
AMEN!! And also we are not defined by what we do or don't do, but who we are IN Christ Jesus!! :) I think of Paul, the apostle, who did great things for the Lord, but he is no more significant then the thief on the cross. Both came to know Jesus! Therefore, who we are IN Christ is more important then what we do. Now, before you pick up a "stone".... yes, if the thief came to know Jesus before his thief days, then he would have done things for the Lord too, but the end result is the same.There is not greater significance one over the other. It's Jesus who defines His followers.
Christ is awsome
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