Do you want to be rich? Calculate how much money would be enough for you to acquire everything you desire and be set for life. You will be able to purchase all the cars, houses, boats, jewelry, clothing, and entertainment you want. Write down that number. Next, craft your plan to get there, including the time, talent, and risk required to accomplish your goal. Determine the age you will be in your perfect world when you can finally enjoy life, worry-free, sunscreen applied, designer sunglasses on, and only accepting calls from those who make you happy.

>Here’s the problem: Life isn’t perfect. Markets crash, values fluctuate, spending increases, lives are cut short, and relationships change. All the while, we work toward our goal, only to miss the satisfaction God had in store for us all along: to be shaped like Christ in our intimacy with Him and our relationships with others. Rather than enjoy life someday, God designed us to enjoy it every day: “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle” (Proverbs 23:4-5). When we make money our god, we risk traveling the road from riches to rags. Each of us wants to trust in our own cleverness, our own plan, our own scheme, rather than in the God of the Universe; and that is how we miss the life He intended. Either the riches fly away, or we do, so we should focus on being used by God to advance the heart of Christ in others.

Are you a workaholic? Perhaps, you treat everyone around you as if your time or talent is more valuable than theirs. Ask God to redeem your time, your talent, and your treasure, seeking His plan for your life. He will give you purpose and passion for the good works He designed for you to do as you pass through this side. You will discover riches that will last for eternity: intimacy with God and relationships with others.

Episode 94: 30 Sayings of the Wise: Finances from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.