When What We Have Has Our Heart | Daily Devotional 1626

James 5, 1 through 6.

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as if it were fire.

Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth." and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton.

Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.

Well, good morning to that.

We might not fully understand what all that means, but it sounds pretty intense.

Well, that's because these strong words that were spoken in James are about money, they're about possession, and it is about the way people are treated.

So if you ever want to know what God says, how Jesus feels about how people are treated fraudulently or misused or considered servants and slaves, this is where you look because James is not saying that having money is sinful.

It's not.

God blesses us with finances.

But throughout scripture, God blessed people like Abraham and like Job and David with great resources.

He blessed great men with financial blessing.

But the warning is about allowing wealth to control our hearts.

And so that's why the title of today's devotion is when what we have has our hearts.

It's so important for us to understand that the possessions God has given us are just that.

They're given to us by God.

And instead of trusting the possession, we put our trust in God.

And gaining or keeping wealth by mistreating others brings dishonor to God.

And he says very clearly what happens to those people.

that their fraudulent ways will be exposed.

James 5, 1 through 6.

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as if it were fire.

Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth." and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton.

Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.

Well, good morning to that.

We might not fully understand what all that means, but it sounds pretty intense.

Well, that's because these strong words that were spoken in James are about money, they're about possession, and it is about the way people are treated.

So if you ever want to know what God says, how Jesus feels about how people are treated fraudulently or misused or considered servants and slaves, this is where you look because James is not saying that having money is sinful.

It's not.

God blesses us with finances.

But throughout scripture, God blessed people like Abraham and like Job and David with great resources.

He blessed great men with financial blessing.

But the warning is about allowing wealth to control our hearts.

And so that's why the title of today's devotion is when what we have has our hearts.

It's so important for us to understand that the possessions God has given us are just that.

They're given to us by God.

And instead of trusting the possession, we put our trust in God.

And gaining or keeping wealth by mistreating others brings dishonor to God.

And he says very clearly what happens to those people.

that their fraudulent ways will be exposed.