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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – John 7-9

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 10:18-23
Jesus: You are calling Me good? Don’t you know that God and God alone is good? Anyway, why ask Me that question? You know the Commandments of Moses: “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not slander, do not defraud, and honor your father and mother.”
Young Man: Yes, Teacher, I have done all these since I was a child.
Then Jesus, looking at the young man, saw that he was sincere and responded out of His love for him.
Jesus: Son, there is still one thing you have not done. Go now. Sell everything you have and give the proceeds to the poor so that you will have treasure in heaven. After that, come, follow Me.
The young man went away sick at heart at these words because he was very wealthy, and Jesus looked around to see if His disciples were understanding His teaching.
Jesus (to His disciples): Oh, it is hard for people with wealth to find their way into God’s kingdom!

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

So why would Jesus say it is hard for people with wealth to find their way into God’s kingdom? Is He excluding them or something? Does He think they don’t belong? Is He trying to say it’s better to be poor than to have wealth? What is He trying to tell us about riches and wealth and money as He shares these words with the wealthy young man and with us?

First, we need to be clear that Jesus doesn’t say it’s impossible for the wealthy to make it into the kingdom of heaven. God wants all people to make it. His desire is that we would all come to Him in repentance and follow His decrees so that we would find ourselves with Him throughout eternity. But Jesus knew our hearts. He knew the lies Satan tells us and what makes us tick. He knew that wealth could and does often get in the way of true repentance for several reasons.

Second, wealth can blind a person to the fact they need God because they can buy most of the physical essentials they need to live a comfortable life here on earth. The wealthy can purchase food, clothing, shelter, security, some sense of happiness by satisfying some temporary physical pleasures. The basic needs of life on the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be bought with money. The wealthy have little trouble finding these things when enough gold passes from their hands into another’s.

So as the poor are struggling to meet the daily physical needs the wealthy find so easy to come by, we get a glimpse into this obstacle to trusting God for our very lives. The poor understand it because they sometimes don’t know where their next meal will come from or even if they will have a next meal. They wonder where they will sleep tonight or if they can clothe and feed their children to stave off the ravages of the environment. The wealthy have none of those worries from day to day. So the wealthy do not cry out to God for the provision of such seemingly mundane things.

Third, since the wealthy can purchase with the gold they earn from their work or their inheritance or from whatever source it comes, they sometimes forget it all comes as a gift from God so they can experience the spiritual gift of giving. Paul takes about spiritual gifts in several of his letters and usual that list includes the gift of giving. But to be able to give, you must first have the gift of accumulation. The wealthy sometimes forget that God enables them to earn those large sums of money or property or whatever the monetary assets are so they can help others through their generosity. God doesn’t intend for us to hoard the gifts He gives. He expects us to use them for His glory.

Fourth, our society makes a significant difference between the wealthy and the poor in terms of their importance and how they are treated. We see it everywhere and in every culture. The wealthy are lifted up as the model to emulate. They are the haves versus the have nots. They are the pillars of success according to the world. We should all strive to be like them. The poor, we brush aside. We look over them or past them as we walk down the street or drive through the underpasses. We pay no attention to them unless it is to look down on them and often blame them for their own miserable conditions. We forget God created every single one of us. In His eyes there are no rich or poor, black or white, insiders or outsiders, we are all His creation. He wants all of us to know Him well enough that we plead for His forgiveness from our sins and to join Him in His eternal home.

Finally, Jesus makes it clear that the material things of this earth mean absolutely nothing to God. But when we hang on to them too tightly, we make them our God and begin to worship them instead of the One True God. The young man went away sick at heart, Mark says, because the only way He could find real peace with God was to put His wealth on a lower priority than God. He wasn’t willing to do that. Too many in our country, the wealthiest nation on earth are also too attached to the material things we have gained and unwilling to let them go. We have made our wealth, whatever amount it might be, our god. But when we do, we walk away from the One True God, Jehovah Jireh, the One who provides. And we do so at our eternal peril.

We have a choice. Will we choose wealth or God? The choice you make has eternal consequences, so make the right one.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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