Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
Proverbs 23:4-5
It is easy to read a passage like Proverbs 23:4-5 and think, ‘This does not apply to me.’
Sadly, this is exactly why Christians wear themselves out to get rich — inadvertently and on a daily basis.
It all starts with one’s personal definition of the word rich. If we don’t consider ourselves to be rich, then we simply blow past this passage and move on. And there’s the rub. Very few people in this world consider themselves to be rich. In fact, almost everyone considers rich to be orders of magnitude — richer — than they are.
In other words, anyone earning minimum wage would consider those who earn the median USA salary of $4,600/month, at time of writing, rich. Of course, people who earn the USA median don’t consider themselves to be rich; they consider millionaires to be rich.
So, it should come as no surprise to learn that a survey showed that the vast majority of millionaires don’t consider themselves to be rich either.
How can this be? The simple truth is that people in all these various walks of life simply don’t have quite enough money. They have debts and living expenses that consume all of their current income. They all need just a little bit more…
… so, as a result, they don’t feel rich.
It’s easy to point the finger at those who are far wealthier than we are and ask, ‘How much more money could they possibly need?’
But consider this; people in less fortunate circumstances than you or me are looking at us and asking the exact same question.
We say things like, ‘If I had as much money as that person, I would never need any more.’
The sad truth is, we would. It’s the human condition.
Ignoring the warning in this proverb is one reason why Christians wear themselves out to be rich. I’ve said it before; the love of money is a state of heart — not a bank balance. We don’t need to be rich to love money.
Why Christians Wear Themselves Out to get Rich
The love of money is a state of heart – not a bank balance
Rich Abba, Holy Abba
The average hard-working person spends 75% or more of their waking hours in pursuit of a paycheck. Every time we receive that paycheck, we acquire — riches.
And, just like the proverb says…
We cast but a glance at those riches, and they are gone! They sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
So we head back to the office each Monday in pursuit of the next paycheck — and most hard-working folk will do this for the forty to fifty most productive years of their lives. This is how and why Christians wear themselves out to get rich.
Meanwhile, we neglect the Kingdom of God in our lives. This is a brutal truth for hard-working believers to face. Can it be that we seek second the Kingdom of God and his righteousness — after we seek that eternal paycheck?
The only way to break this cycle is to be intentional about seeking God’s kingdom first in our lives — and we can only achieve this by being equally intentional about how we earn and spend our money.