16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21 NLT)
Jesus tells us that there are two kinds of riches or wealth. The first is riches or wealth of this world, the things that don't last. Look at all the stuff people lost in Hurricane Ida or the things people had to leave behind when they fled from Afghanistan. The problem is we can get so easily caught in the pursuit of things that we forget about our relationship with God.
The riches that last are our faith in God, hope in His Promises, and reliance on His gift of love. Our stuff will go away. Someone is going to have to deal with our stuff we leave behind after we die. But God's love lasts forever.
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21 NLT)
Jesus tells us that there are two kinds of riches or wealth. The first is riches or wealth of this world, the things that don't last. Look at all the stuff people lost in Hurricane Ida or the things people had to leave behind when they fled from Afghanistan. The problem is we can get so easily caught in the pursuit of things that we forget about our relationship with God.
The riches that last are our faith in God, hope in His Promises, and reliance on His gift of love. Our stuff will go away. Someone is going to have to deal with our stuff we leave behind after we die. But God's love lasts forever.