The True Source of Well Being

By Jeanette Ross

Wealth and well being: we have neither the right to keep it all to ourselves nor to demand it from others- it all belongs to Almighty God. We are facing a battle today between the “haves” and the “have nots” that is caused by the evil spirit of greed. Some of us have worked hard and earned more than enough to sustain us. We figure, we’ve earned it, why not enjoy it? We get caught up in so much busyness, between work and play that we forget to care about those less fortunate. Then there are those of us who have borrowed more money than we will ever be able to pay back to live the “good life” and now don’t know where to turn. And some of us either cannot or do not work as hard as we could, but we feel that we have a right to well being, and maybe those with plenty should be forced to share, since they have been too busy to notice the needs of many. This is ALL GREED.

What we’re truly facing in this nation though is spiritual poverty. We have taken prayer out of schools and other public places. We forget where all of our blessings come from. We have made our own gods with our possessions and our jobs and our culture and our life styles. We forget who it all belongs to. It does not belong to the government to spread the wealth and well being around to whoever feels they deserve it for whatever reason. Remember, the government is run by humans who are mostly greedy for power. They would love to have more control over our lives. Of course we hope that it is because they have our best interest in mind, but without acknowledgement of God, that is not even possible.

If we don’t all learn to humble ourselves to almighty God we could face all out war between “haves” and “have nots”. Those generally tend to not work out well. People get beheaded and most starve to death. Spiritual poverty eventually leads to material poverty for all. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can begin to heal our nation.

Now the question is, “who is God”? We might say, “I’m religious, I go to church, I give to the needy, or I’m still needy” But why do we do these things? Do we do it to earn salvation? Or to show our friends and acquaintances how good we are? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6 Our works are nothing if we don’t seek relationship with God, but our sin gets in the way. We want what we want and we give a little here and there-greed. God wants us to choose to love him and to love and serve others because of our love for him not because we need to earn brownie points. Only the love of Jesus Christ can cover our sin and take away the greed.

Our nation is a mess, but the answer is so very simple. We need to surrender it all to the one who paid it all. The destruction caused by greed will eventually bring us all to our knees one way or another. Jesus died on the cross so that we can all experience the power and love of God through him. And what awesome power it is! It is the true source of all genuine hope and change.