As you can plainly see from the amount of logs stacked into the fire pit, this campfire discussion is going to be a hot one, a important one, and is going to take a little while to adequately cover. Get another cup of coffee, sit back, put your “ears-on” and just maybe you can learn something new .
Money is the unit of measure of the amount of service that a person renders to another person or group. The more service you render (provide) to others, the more money you will have in your own possession. He who serves the most will always be the one who has the most…money.
Now there are a lot of dangers, snares, and pitfalls riding in tandem with the possession of great wealth. Things are not always what they seem to be. Money can in fact be your motivation to perform. That is perfectly fine. However, money should never be your motive,…your reason for doing something, your reason for performing and/or serving others.
Money is a by-product of the operation of the American Free Enterprise System of the United States economy. Money is generated (1) once a creative effort has been expended, (2) once a specific service has been performed, (3) once a return on an investment has been earned, (4) once an amount of it has been legally inherited, or (5) once a quantity of someone else’s money has been stolen from them. Those are the five (5) different ways that money can be actually earned and/or accumulated.
Now we know that money earned properly will always spend properly. Conversely, money earned wrong always spends wrong. So for happiness, joy, and peace of mind to be part of the proper accumulation of wealth, the first test of earning it,…is to be sure it is created through one of the first four ways listed above. When you do things the right way, (God’s Way) then your earnings will be blessed and multiplied. Do things wrong and your earnings will be cursed; you will be separated from it and its blessings. The decision is totally yours. You make the call as to how you create your own wealth.
God’s Word tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil. It does not say that money is the root of all evil. It says “the love of money” is the root of all evil. This is precisely why money is never to be your motive to act or take effort towards accumulating wealth. Earning more money than you presently have whether it be a little or a great sum is most acceptable IF it is your motivation for putting forth a greater effort. Just guard against your fleshly desire to work harder and longer at the expense of your God, your family, your marriage, and/or your personal position. Keep money and a return of your investment as the motivation for you to work harder and longer and better. Money is to become the motivation for all your expended energy and effort, financial resources, time, and production. Never permit or allow money or other physical wealth to become an idol engulfing all of your time and energy.
Keep your life in balance and always leave room for God to be part of your life and how you live it.
History is filled with true stories about men who spent all of their life accumulating great amounts of assets and other wealth, only to lose it all or to prematurely die from the stress associated with spending all of their lives trying to earn more money. A sad testimony of men who had everything possible,…in the eyes of others, and yet had really nothing in their own eyes,…can best be summed up in this statement:
Men will spend their health getting wealth; then gladly pay out all that they have earned to get their health back.
Hospitals and assisted living housing are filled with men and women such as these.
Many people think that having money would solve all of their personal problems. Well history does not support that particular position or line of thought. Let us take a quick look at the words of five of the wealthiest Americans from throughout modern history:
1. John D. Rockefeller said, “I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on three dollars a week.” A broken man in very poor and failing health despite his Christian beliefs, Mr. Rockefeller employed armed guards in his latter years to ensure his personal safety.
2. W. H. Vanderbilt said, “The care of 200 million dollars is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it.”
3. Mr. John Jacob Astor, extremely wealthy businessman, was a martyr to dyspepsia (indigestion) and a melancholy demeanor. He once said, “I am the most miserable man on earth.”
4. Henry Ford, king of the automobile makers, stated, “Work is the only pleasure….I was happier when doing a mechanic’s job.”
5. Andrew Carnegie, multimillionaire and business tycoon, once noted, “Millionaires seldom smile.”
These men accumulated great quantities of wealth as a result of their business ventures and services provided. They all worked very hard and long to accomplish what they thought was going to be a first class lifestyle of total happiness and enjoyment. They succeeded in their efforts, but did they really succeed in life?
Money cannot satisfy the deep internal needs and longings of the human heart. Money will not buy happiness.
Learn to greatly value your health and well being,…because all the money in the world cannot buy it.
God, in all of His Infinite Wisdom gave all of His Creation great and very sound counsel in the Holy Bible. We would all do well to read and then to heed this personal instruction as you passionately pursue your God-given purpose in life. God laid it all out in Scripture in the Book of 1 Timothy, Chapter 6, verses 6–10 NKJV:
(6) “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
(7) For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
(8) And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
(9) “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a
snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown
men in destruction and perdition.
(10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which
some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and
pierced themselves through with many arrows.”
Money can be your motivation in all of your efforts, but do not permit money to be your motive, your cause, your definite purpose. Money is a different and very interesting thing. The more you use it, the more you give it away, and the more you help other people with it, the more of it you will have. You simply cannot out-give God.
Peace and Love to All of You……………Poppa Bear