HomeJames 1:9-10 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.
Life is brief and in death the rich and the poor are made equal. We have the same fate as far as this physical life is concerned. We will not live this life forever. But for those that believe, we will live forever with Christ. The rich cannot buy anything that will take away death. None of the accumulation of wealth, prestige or fame will do anything to preserve his life for another day past what the Lord has ordained. In the end, we often will find that the things we pursued with great fervor were not necessarily all that important and the things that were important, we failed to heed. How we should pray that this will not be so. The lowly, the poor, the down trodden are blessed in many ways, for although the world looks on them with scorn, they have not many of the distractions that separate us from the Lord. Jesus called them blessed in the Beatitudes. He said that the rich man would find it difficult to get into heaven. Whatever our status here in the states is, we are rich, beyond anything most other cultures can imagine. And yet we always want more. There is always something more that I want to acquire. We are distracted. I pray that I am not receiving my reward in stuff. What difference it would be if our joy was not culminated in the amount of our possessions, but if our joy was centered upon daily tasting of God’s goodness and grace that He showers upon us. If we lost all things tonight, could we be happy in God. I’m not saying that it would be easy, but could you still praise God if all you had was taken away like what happened to Job? these are things to consider as we think about our maturity and relationship with God and our real motives and desires.