“Do you want to be truly rich? You already are if you are happy and good. After all, we didn’t bring any money with us when we came into the world, and we can’t carry away a single penny when we die” (1 Timothy 6:6,7).

If you had the choice of choosing between great wealth and good health and a happy, joyful relationship with our Lord, which would you choose? Though many would choose wealth, I am sure that if you are a Christian, you would gladly choose to live modestly the rest of your life if necessary in order to experience daily the joy of your salvation.

During all of my career, I, an agnostic, had worked hard to successfully develop my business interests. Then, in the providence of God, I was brought face to face with Christ and His Word. “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

It was as though God touched my mind to enable me to understand that I could eat only one meal at a time, wear one suit of clothes at a time and take nothing with me when I die. I understood for the first time that being truly rich does not involve the accumulation of vast wealth, but it involves knowing and doing the will of God – in walking in intimate, vital, personal fellowship with Him daily as a way of life.

Fanny Crosby, the hymnwriter, gave us more than eight thousand gospel songs. Although blinded at the age of six weeks, she never held any bitterness in her heart because of it.

“I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you,” a friend once said to her.

“Do you know,” she responded quickly, “that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind.”

“Why?” asked the astounded clergyman.

“Because,” she replied, “when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”

Bible Reading:Luke 12:25-31

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  As I figuratively sit at God’s banquet table today, I will feast upon His spiritual bounties and not be satisfied with the crumbs of materialism.

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“Loving God means doing what He tells us to do, and really that isn’t hard at all; for every child of God can obey Him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him” (1 John 5:3,4).

I believe that we are on the threshold of witnessing the greatest spiritual revival in the history of the church. I believe that the Great Commission will indeed be fulfilled before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19,20).

Today, however, because of the subtle ways of the world system, there are more carnal Christians than at any other time in history. But the Bible tells us that the tide will turn and that the church will soon enter its finest hour.

We are beginning to see that turning of the tide. More and more Christians are discovering how to live supernaturally in the power and control of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is being spread throughout the world by many committed Christians who are determined, by faith, to help fulfill the Great Commission in this generation, whatever the cost.

I do not know anyone, however, who loves this world system who has ever been used of God in any significant way. There is nothing wrong with money and other material success. However, we are to wear the cloak of materialism loosely. We are to set our affection on Christ and His kingdom, not on the material things of this world.

The Lord left us with this wonderful promise…”every child of God can obey Him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him”. Inviting Christ to help us is our decision to make. It is simply a matter of the will.

Bible Reading:I John 5:1-8

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will obey God and trust Christ to defeat sin and evil pleasure in my life, so that I can live a supernatural life and help take His gospel to all men throughout the world.

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“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25, KJV).

George had tried to live a Christian life for many years, but finally gave up.

“It’s no use,” he said. “I have tried and tried and failed and failed. I have dedicated, rededicated, consecrated and reconsecrated my life to Christ, and nothing happens. I am a total failure.”

Whereupon I read him this and several other key verses of Scripture, emphasizing the role that Christ plays in our behalf at the right hand of the Father.

“Did it ever occur to you,” I asked, “that Jesus right now is aware of your every need and is interceding for you?”

That very thought overwhelmed him, and he fell to his knees with tears of gratitude.

“Oh,” he said, “I knew that Jesus died for me and shed His blood for my sins. But somehow I had never made the connection between the cross and His present role of interceding for me.”

“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room,” declared the famous Christian statesman, Robert Murray McCheyne, “I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. ‘He ever liveth to make intercession.'”

When Satan tempts me with discouragement and frustration, often I can visualize a scene that brings instant victory over the enemy. At the right hand of God is a room – a prayer room, if you please – and kneeling there is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, praying specifically for me and my needs. He is interceding for me!

Bible Reading:Romans 8:31-34

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will allow no burden or problem or need or frustration or discouragement to defeat me any longer. Instead, I will visualize Christ Himself praying for me, and since all authority in heaven and earth belongs to Him, I will expect victory over Satan and all the unseen forces of evil in order that I may live a supernatural life according to my spiritual heritage. I will also seek to share this exciting truth with someone else today. Oh, what good news to share!

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