Trust not in Riches

Wednesday 9 August
READ: Psa. 62: 8 – 10
MORE LESSON: Psa. 49: 6

Wealth is a great blessing that helps us to further the cause of the gospel and help humanity. Zech 1: 17 says, Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad.... Wealth and prosperity are part of God's plan for expanding His kingdom and purpose on the earth. There is an assumption in the Body of Christ that when a righteous man is rich, he will commit sin; therefore, God doesn't want us to be rich so that we will remain holy. This teaching has made a lot of believers unconsciously desire poverty in order to be safe. The truth is that poverty, more than prosperity, endangers salvation. It also endangers the work of God. The danger in prosperity comes when the money in our hands is not used for advancing the work of God. Anything we have that we cannot use for God becomes sin in our hand.
In the quest for prosperity, we must never allow riches to take the place of God in our heart. Those that trust in riches instead of God will destroy their own souls. Psa 62: 10 says if riches increase, do not set your heart upon them. It is in setting your heart on riches that you begin to offend God. When making money becomes more important to you than loving and serving God, or your sense of security is in the amount of money you have and not in the God that you have, there is trouble.
There are people that cannot give because there is a benchmark that they do not allow the money in their accounts to go below. Once their bank accounts start reading below a particular amount, they get restless and behave as if the sky is about to fall. This benchmark that they have set for themselves is another man's financial prayer point for a whole year. The sad thing is that they have not set a benchmark for their prayer life or fellowship with God.
As children of God we must get victory over the hold of money as we get victory over sin. As a child of God overcomes sexual immorality and stealing, he must also overcome the hold of money over his life. Greed and lust for money must be destroyed so that one is not ruled by money. Paul said, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need: Phil 4:12. Paul is not advocating poverty but advising that there is nothing that we should not be able to live without. We should not trust in riches but be able to live contentedly with or without it.

Prayer/Action
* Tell the Lord that He will remain first in your life, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God to add everything else to you as you seek first His kingdom, in Jesus mighty name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I open the door of miracles, signs and wonders to this month; it shall be testimony all the way, in the mighty name of Jesus.