Can’t Buy Me Love

Haven’t we all dreamt about being rich and famous?  Not having to worry about paying bills or living within a budget?  If only I could come up with some amazing invention and stike it rich…. Bill Gates did it, why can’t I?  (Oh wait, because I don’t know anything about binary codes and someone already patented the Snuggie!  Funny though, because we were just talking last week about the need for serving-size sporks….maybe I’m on to something after all!!)  The point is, it’s really easy to get caught up in the idea that having more money will somehow make our lives easier and more fulfilling.

That’s understandable, considering all we have to do is flip on the televsion or open up a People magazine to read about our favorite celebrities and all the stuff they’ve accumulated — fancy cars, gigantic houses, designer clothes, jewelry, and the best of everything that money can buy.  We’re a culture that’s obsessed with the “new” and the “now,” the latest and greatest, this season’s iPhone, not last season’s Ugg boots.  But are these really the things that satisfy our craving for contentment, peace, and happiness in our lives?  Are celebrities really the happiest people on earth?  Not likely, considering how many divorces, addictions, suicides and health disorders also appear in the tabloids.  So why do we waste so much time comparing ourselves and feeling like we don’t measure up?

It’s because of the world’s false values that we seldom see ourselves as we really are.  The truth is that in the eyes of God, every believer is rich and famous.  We possess the richness of salvation - and that’s something we can take with us even after we die, unlike money and all the stuff we hoard.  We’re famous and precious to our Savior, so much that He sacrificed Himself so we can spend eternity with Him.  His love is greater than any thing money can buy - we were purchased with His blood.

So it’s time to stop comparing our houses, clothes, cars, and bank accounts.  It’s time to start focusing on an intimate relationship with Christ, because that has the biggest payoff of all!

This craving for fortune is nothing new. Two thousand years ago Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25 )