READING: Ezekiel 6-9, Hebrews 12
Materialism is so deceitful. All the stuff the world offers cannot bring lasting joy, yet we strive for more stuff anyway. Possessions become the means by which we evaluate our success and our value—even though possessions ultimately wind up in the garbage dump. We know we can’t take any of it with us when we die, but we live as if we can. In many parts of the world, in fact, a bribe is a customary—even culturally acceptable—manner of business; if you can pay enough, you can accomplish what you want to accomplish. Wealth thus equals power in the world’s eyes.
On the other hand, it is good for us to remember what Ezekiel recorded when God brought judgment on His people for their materialistic sin: “They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and gold will be unable to save them in the day of the Lord’s wrath” (Ezek 7:19). In the day of judgment, all their material wealth would provide them no cover. Indeed, they would learn that the idols they had fashioned from their silver and gold could never protect them from God’s anger. The wealth they had deemed so important at one point would be nothing less than filthy in the end. It would provide neither protection nor satisfaction.
I am reminded today that living for the temporary is foolish indeed. May God help me to remember that commitment every day.
PRAYER: “Father, help me not to buy the lies of materialism.”
DAILY ACTION STEP: Evaluate your own spending habits. For what are you living today?
TOMORROW’S READING: Ezekiel 10-13, Hebrews 13