Daily Bible Verses for 9/4/2016

Bible Verse
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry. ‘, But God said to him, ‘Fool This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Reading Notes
When Jesus told this parable He was speaking to a large crowd of people in addition to His disciples. Jesus had been speaking about hypocrisy in general and not having a heart toward God. In this parable Jesus is stressing the condition of a person’s heart and not wealth in general. Jesus wanted the people to understand that what we do with our money is an outward expression of the condition of our heart. As believers and followers of Jesus, we are called to put our trust in the Lord and put the things of God and the needs of others ahead of our own desires. God blesses us so that we can bless others, our family and those in need. And we should never forget the source of our blessing is God and not ourselves. In addition, our security and strength is in the Lord and in Him only should we trust. We have to remember God calls all followers of Christ to use our time, talents and resources to help those in need and to further the spread of the Gospel.

And in this parable we can see that the rich fool as a member of God’s chosen people Israel, had forgotten what he was called to do as a child of God. The nation of Israel as a whole were called to share the true and living God of Israel with the surrounding nations. He was blessed by God, who gave him everything he had and then he used that only for himself. What this rich fool did, is he forgot God! He had become enamored with his riches and turned his heart toward his possessions. He took security not in the Lord, who had provided everything for him; but in his wealth. In his heart this rich fool had replaced God with his wealth. Instead of focusing on building up treasures in heaven, he was consumed to store up treasures on earth. He had built the foundation of his life not on God and His saving grace; but on his own possessions and abilities. For this rich fool his wealth had become his idol and his obsession, thereby replacing God in his life. As Christians, we need to ask ourselves daily, where is our wealth stored? If we say here on earth, then the next question is, what has replaced God in our hearts?