I was reading through some other things this morning, and came across the verse quite unexpectedly. Again as God often does, I stopped to read it, then I had to re-read it and it got me thinking.
How often do we think “Man, life would be easier if we just made more money” or do we wish we had a bigger house, nicer car, or the latest, greatest gadget. I don’t think that hoping or praying for such things is necessarily wrong, but if it begins to become an obsession, then we run into problems.
Such is the fate of all who are greedy for gain. It ends up robbing them of life. -Proverbs 1:19
Such a simple little verse, but says so much. The fate that is talked about there is mentioned in the previous verse.
But not these people! They set an ambush for themselves; they booby-trap their own lives! -Proverbs 1:18
Who are these people that those “greedy for gain” are compared to? Verse 16 tells us it’s those that commit crimes and that hurry to commit murder. That’s putting them in some company there.
One of the traps we can fall into very easily is being “greedy for gain.” It begins when the enemy plants a suggestion that we can’t live without something or more money. That desire feeds upon itself until it becomes an all-consuming obsession. When obsessed like this, you miss out on the blessings that god is trying to provide us (which is sufficient – 2 Corinthians 12:9) and we miss out on opportunities that God puts before us where we can be a blessing to others.
Personal Application
I personally struggle with this. Not that I’m striving for great possessions or an absolute ton of money, but I have a tendency to look at everything I do and try to find a way to make money from it. I have a hard time just sitting back and enjoying something I’m doing. I’m always looking for an angle to monetize it. This tends to make my hobbies and what should be times of enjoyment and relaxation into work. Eventually, I get tired of the stress or the failure of monetizing something and I give up on it and move on to something else. Never realizing the full enjoyment out of it. I keep doing this over and over again, never learning from my failures before. I have a saying that I like to repeat, “Practice makes permanent, not perfect.”
I do feel to that if God has intentions of blessing me through some activity or hobby, he will do so. By my meddling and looking for the angles I’m slowing the whole process down and I’m not receiving the full blessing that god is giving. If I just sat back and enjoyed myself and stopped worrying about my “greed for gain,” the blessings would come and I could be a blessing to others.
Exceptional Christian 