BE ON YOUR GUARD
Opening Prayer
I come to your Word today, Father, acknowledging my unworthiness and being amazed that you would give your Son to die for me. I come eager to hear from you how I can better serve you.
Read LUKE 12:13-21
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
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.”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen’ (Romans 11:36). Pause and reflect on how everything comes from God and is for him and his glory.I have read this story many times with my children as it appears with comical pictures in their children’s Bible. And it does feel a bit silly, doesn’t it? A man who already has more than enough keeps working hard for more things he doesn’t need, which in the end he doesn’t get to enjoy properly, because he dies before he can ‘take life easy’ and enjoy them (vs 16-20).
Notice how much the man is focused on himself: there are lots of ‘I will do this…’ and ‘my crops’, ‘my barns’ and ‘my grain’ (vs 17,18). His life is centered on himself, not God—and God says to him, ‘You fool!’ (v 20).
Could this be us too? It’s certainly not easy to step outside the materialistic world in which we live, but Jesus reminds us of our eternal destiny, where our earthly possessions simply will not matter. Let us seek God rather than the distractions and arguments about our possessions (v 13).
Apply
What would it mean for you to shift your attention from your possessions to being ‘rich toward God’ (v 21)?
Closing prayer
Lord God, I pray for myself and for my church community, that you and your priorities would be the focus of our lives. May all that we are and do be set on bringing glory to you.
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