James 1:11
The Message
You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.
New American Standard
For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.
You know I can’t help but think about Bernie Maddoff with this verse. Pursuit of the “prosperous life” at all costs. Then how quickly the beauty and appearance is destroyed. Just took one SEC investigation into his ponzi scheme and his whole world fell apart. He’s in prison, his son who was in business with him has committed suicide, all of his wealth has been taken over by the courts. What a waste. He obviously was a smart man. Why couldn’t he do a legal, legitimate business. A fair guess would be that he wasn’t adhering to God’s word.
Everything is temporary. One of our pastors used to say he’s never seen a hearse with a U-haul trailer attached to it. We come into this life with nothing and we’re going to leave with nothing. Oh, we can leave “stuff” as an inheritance for sure and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But I’ve also seen a lot of “trust fund babies” who have no concept of reality when it comes to money or how God intends for us to use the resources He gives us. This verse is just one more that deals with putting your full trust and reliance on God and not on yourself. You know what topic is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other? You would think it would be sin or anything relating to the 10 commandments. It’s money. There are over 800 references to money alone, so guess what the number one issue is in divorces. Not adultery. It’s money. More fights are started over money issues than any other by a wide margin. My theory is that if you are walking with the Lord in every aspect of your life, the Lord will bless you with just the right amount of money that you can handle. If you show that you can handle the little amounts he will gradually give you more. God does not tempt. Only satan tempts. But Got will only give you so much as to not get you in trouble.
So remember at the beginning of this study I said that James is all about tests of your faith. So how you doing on that money pursuit. Is it number one in your life. If so, you better reexamine because according to today’s verse, pretty soon it’s all going to be fading away.
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