Proverbs 15:16 - Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.
For many people the more they have, the happier they think they will be. If you have a large house or even two or three, then you are living “the good life”. If you have the car you’ve always wanted, wear expensive clothes, eat the best food from the world’s top chefs, and have the admiration of a multitude of people, then you might think that you have attained the pinnacle of success in life. This is the dream that drives countless people in the world. If only we had more money and more possessions, we would be happy.
Unfortunately, the more you have it seems the more trouble you have as well. A common narrative that you will hear from celebrities is how their wealth and fame not only changed them, but changed how they were treated by their friends and family. Suddenly all their friends wanted to be around them and support them, but really what they wanted was to have a piece of the pie themselves. The rich and famous also seem to have more anxiety because of the pressure of maintaining the empire that they have built.
Certainly, there are plenty of benefits to gaining such wealth, but no doubt the more you have, the more you invite the opportunity for problems you never would have had otherwise. When you think of it this way, you might wonder why we strive after this position of prosperity given the trouble that comes with it, but that is the deception of it. We allow ourselves to be naive of the trouble because we really want to believe that having more will bring us more comfort and if we have more comfort we will have more joy and if we have more joy we will have more peace. But all we need do is look at the broken lives of the rich and famous to know that this dream of having more can actually be a nightmare.
The things of this world cannot satisfy us and cannot save us, and the more we have the less we seem to think we need God or salvation. Yet, the writer of this proverb tells us otherwise. It is better to have very little of the world, and a lot of God in your life. If you have been a Christian who has walked with the Lord for many years you will know this to be true. The world cannot offer what the Lord can, and so we should spend more of our efforts getting more of God than getting more of the world.
As you walk through the day that you have set before you, consider what it would look like to get more of Christ in your life through what you do. Perhaps it’s giving more time to prayer or Bible reading. Perhaps it’s spending time with a Christian brother or sister who can care for you and teach you. Maybe it’s as simple as having more integrity in your work and words. You can try to gain the world today, or you can gain more of God. One will lead to peace and the other leads to trouble. Know this, the more you have of God the more strength you will have for this world, but the more you have the world, the less fit you will be for the world to come.
