Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. — Proverbs 15:16
Some time ago, I was watching television one evening and a commercial came on. I don’t remember what the commercial was advertising really, but the tag line at the end of the spot caught my attention. The person who was providing the voiceover ended the commercial with, “because you deserve it.”
Truly that’s the mentality of our world today. We live in a society where the common idea and theme is that we deserve everything. We deserve the nicest cars, the biggest homes, and the best things that this life has to offer. The world teaches us all that we should do anything and everything we can to get those things “because we deserve it.”
For that reason, people will often spend their lives chasing the things they believe they deserve. Solomon shares some wisdom and truth in Proverbs about that very subject. In our focus verse, he says that it is better to have little with the fear of God than great treasure with trouble. It’s not that having nice things is bad, it is that many times they are a distraction from living a life for God.
Rather than focusing on obtaining the nice things in life, our focus should be on living for God. Sure, God may bless us with nice things in this life. There is nothing wrong with nice things. But we cannot let them stand in the way of God.
As you examine your life today, what do you desire in life? Are you desiring things of this world or are you desiring God? It is so easy to let things get in the way and cause us to lose our focus. Today, we can all take a moment to reflect on what we desire in our lives. The center of our desire should be God!
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