Riches

“And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 4:19

There are many bold claims like this in the Bible: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart,” and “Ask and it will be given to you,” or, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.” If we do not read them carefully we can come to believe that God will give us anything and everything we want. You want a new cadillac? Just ask for it. You want a million dollars? All you have to do is pray hard and believe.

You don’t have to live long to realize that God that is not your Spiritual Santa Claus. You have to realize the difference between needs and wants, and your desires versus God’s desire for you. Now what I am not saying is that God does not give you good gifts. On the contrary, He will give you everything you need, but just not always what you want. Our desires and wants can be dangerous, prone to selfishness and can lead us to consequences we don’t want. If I was given all of my desires, including the sinful ones, I would be in a lot of hurt.

The part of this verse I missed for years was the last part “His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” The “riches” in Christ are immense for those of us who believe and have given our lives to Him. “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Mercy, love, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control and the list goes on. Plus there is the promise of eternity in Heaven!

Spend some time in prayer aligning yourself with Him. Take all your wants and desires and place them at His feet. Ask the Lord to give you the true desires of your heart. Place all your trust in Him to supply your every need.

“To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen”