Poor, but rich

 

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write,

‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: 9 “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); - Revelation 2.8-9

 

I wish I knew more about the church in Smyrna. All we know is that they worked hard, they were under severe persecution, and they were desperately poor.

 

But wait, were they really poor. They had nothing but Jesus said they were rich. How can that be?

Another church later on is going to hear the opposite because they thought they were rich, but they were really poor.

 

There are plenty of references in the word of God to how much better it is to have spiritual wealth than material wealth, but what we see can often blind us to the invisible things. Plus, we have a world that tells us that success mean having all we can grab.

 

The thing is all that wealth is transitory. It is all going to be gone one day. We can’t take that with us, so is that really wealth?

 

I think we are going to be shocked when we get to heaven when we discover that the real heroes of the faith, the saints who have the rewards, are not going to be the spiritual superstars of today, but the poor, humble, unnoticed saints who remained faithful even when they had nothing and less than nothing.

 

Most of us will never see that kind of persecution, and we have a hard time be faithful when the slightest difficulty enters our lives.

 

Thank God for those who are truly rich. May we learn from them.