GIF Accumulating Things

“All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.”
(Ecclesiastes 2:10)

Accumulating Things
by Larry Burkett

The tendency expressed in today’s verse is what prompted Karl Marx to comment that capitalism destroys itself because it is humanistic and feeds its own greed.

Christianity in America has been the controlling influence on capitalism, because we practice self-control and moderation. But now we have become caught up with everyone else in the race to see who can accumulate the most things. As a result, we have lost our witness in that area.

A Christian businessman and his wife were asked to go on a trip to Haiti with a missionary group. It was their first trip into an impoverished culture and it was a life changing experience.

The husband said, “I had always assumed we were helping a few ignorant natives who were really too lazy to do better. But instead, we saw fellow human beings who had been born into total poverty. Twice we were offered babies by women who desired, above all else, that their children be given a chance to live.”

When we recognize that these kinds of needs exist, it should become easier to curb our temptations to accumulate things.

Remember what Peter said: “In your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control,perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness” (2 Peter 1:6).

Is your focus on accumulating more things or on what you can do for someone in need?

Daily Scripture Reading: 

1 Chronicles 6