For Richer or Poorer

I don't like to think of myself as a judgmental kind of person.  But recently I have been convicted of the fact that I am very judgmental.  Although God is doing His new reality series "Warren's Extreme Makeover" and changing me from the inside out, I still have these very judgmental thoughts.  Not in the way you might think though.

I used to look at people who lived in mobile homes or similar dwellings as trashy people.  Usually they had garbage strewn all over their property and their homes looked like they would collapse at any minute.  I would think, "Why do people live like that?  Why don't they take care of what they own even if it is a piece of junk?"  Lately, as God has done His handiwork, my feelings have changed and I thought that I had left these kind of judgments behind me.  I realize now that God doesn't look at the house or car we own, He doesn't look at how well we keep our yard, or how clean our lives are.  He only cares about the condition of our heart.

This thought dawned on me one day, "What if the person living in that trailer has devoted everything they are and everything they have to serving God's purpose.  So much so that they have nothing left over for themselves."  Likely?  Perhaps not but who am I to make that judgment just from seeing the exterior of how they live.  I was looking through a human perspective and not God's perspective.


Jesus turned and said to Peter(Warren), "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."  Matt 16:23 NIV.


So what did I do?  I went to the other end of the spectrum.  I started to see the wealthy people around me as the ones who were really lost.  And the Bible seemed to back this idea up when I read things like Mark 10:25 "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."  Or Proverbs 28:6 "Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse."


We live in a affluent area where people I know at church are very wealthy.  They have big houses, fancy cars, and expensive clothes.  I started to think, "These people are wasting God's blessings on themselves.  Do you really need a Porsche Cayenne to carry the kids!"  I also pondered the question, "When God gives a man great wealth is it a blessing or a curse?"


Well, as usually happens God's been trying to teach me this lesson for a while but it took until now to fully understand it.  In discussions with my neighbor and my mom, both said pretty much the same thing.  My neighbor stated that he didn't know why so many people hated rich folks.  "They're some of the most generous people we know!" he exclaimed at one point.  All I was thinking was that, "Yes, they give...out of their excess.  They have so much money that they lack for nothing even after they give to charities."


Then I read Deut. 30:1-10.  Especially verse 9 that says God will prosper you.  And I finally came to conclusion that I had been driving at for a while.  Being rich is not a sin, but the love of money is.  1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."  God doesn't intend for His blessings to increase our burden, but it can if we let it.


Again, it goes back to where our hearts are at.  If we love money more than God it's a sin and we will "pierced with many griefs", but God may bless us with wealth if he knows we can be trusted.  Don't think that I'm preaching the Prosperity Gospel which uses the Bible to convince people they're all supposed to be rich.  I'm not saying that at all.  I am saying that when we look at rich people we can't see where their heart is at.  Many of the very rich are great philanthropists and as long as they are placing God and His will for their money first, then they have every right to enjoy what's left over as a blessing from God.


The Bible is full of verses that vilify the rich.  But they are speaking about those who have, in their hearts, placed their wealth above God.  So now when I see the rich and the poor I try only to see their hearts for God and not what they wear or drive.  Because "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Matt 6:21.  My treasure is in my heart where the Spirit of God resides, where is yours?