The more they had

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.  – Hosea 4.7

The more the nation increased the more they sinned. How sad are those words? And how said it is that those words are as true today as they ever were.

I think the clearest New Testament version of this truth is these words from the angel to the church at Laodicea.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Wealth is a danger. It can be a blessing for those wise enough to use it properly, but the danger is the more we have the more we can be tempted to think that we might not really need God so much.

There is nothing at all wrong with stuff. That is unless your stuff helps you rely on you instead of God and that is what happens far too often. That’s easy for me to say because we have never had much stuff and time after time we have had to sit back and literally watch God meet our needs. It started the day after we got married, it continues on to today, and as far as I can tell it is going to continue on in the future. I’d love to have more stuff, but I have also been blessed by depending on God on a regular basis.

No matter who we are or have or don’t have we must remember He who gives us this day our daily bread.