No Threat

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
NO THREAT
Prov 13:8
8 A man's riches may ransom his life,
but a poor man hears no threat.
NIV
I once told my girls when they were young and open to the ideas from their dad, when they were pestering me to get a swing set, that the more possessions one has the more those possessions own some of your time and effort. This is the truth of this saying in a nutshell. I truly believe when a person has an abundance of things, or money he spends way too much time and energy trying to figure out how to either get more or guard what he has from being taken away from him. It seems to me the people I know who have much are very guarded about what they have. It appears to me they are almost afraid someone is going to take advantage of them. I do believe the more people have the more they trust in their haves and at the same time worry about not having what they do. I have served many of this world’s wealthy. I have been in their homes, seen how they live in opulence. I know what it is like to be treated as a servant. I have witnessed their fear of losing what they have, guarding their stuff. I cannot live like that. Sure I have stuff, maybe even a lot of stuff. But it is just stuff. I surely do not have an abundance of riches to ransom my life with. I do not have to worry about the stock market, or any other investment or retirement fund. I do not have to be concerned that what I have invested is going to lose any value at all because I have nothing invested in the world. God knows full well and has said that where my treasure is so is my heart. If I have anything which I consider of value here in this world it might well become my treasure. No one need steal from a poor man. No one need to deceive a poor man into thinking it is alright to give Satan his money. With much wealth great temptations will follow. With many possessions many temptations will also follow. Although by some I might be consider as having much, and by others I would be seen as having little, I am poor yet I am rich. God told one of the churches that although they were rich they were poor. It is all about my relationship with him. It matters not the amount of this worlds wealth I have as long as I have Christ as my Lord and Savior. I have no treats from this world. I have nothing to fear from any man, or any situation I found myself in. I have no need to be anxious or concerned about anything at all in the world because I know Christ and he knows me. I know I will hear the words, “Enter in my good and faithful servant” instead of, “Away from me, I never knew you”. I have no threat.