7. Put Money First and You’ll Suffer and Toil in Vain!
PR 23:4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. 5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
ECC 5:10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. 11 As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? 12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.
ECC 6:1 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: 2 God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil. 3 A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. 5 Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man– 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place? 7 All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
Sep 10, 2012 @ 13:26:17
I agree that if you love money you’ll never be satisfied with your income–you’ll always want that promotion or pay raise, but the Bible says that if your riches increase don’t put your hope in them. Also, don’t make gold your security. Don’t chase for that pot of gold at the end of the mythical rainbow or the city of El Dorado, as it were. The Bible condemns the desire to get rich quick and any such scheme. Personal ambition is wrong but godly ambition is commendable, being to God’s glory. Jer. 45:5 reads, “Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not….” This is blind ambition.
The rich and the poor have this in common: God is the maker of them both. Isaiah 48:17 says that God leads you toward a successful way: “I am the LORD your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.” Deut. 8:18 says that God is the one who gives the power to make money. Don’t be the self-made man who worships his creator!