A blessing or curse?

Proverbs 30:8-9 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny [thee], and say, Who [is] the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God [in vain].

An unhealthy thirst for wealth and money can end up being a curse rather than a blessing. One can wonder, how can a seemingly good thing suddenly become a bad thing? Yes it can if one's heart is not set right, Solomon in our theme scripture says it rightly.

The greatest attack you can ever get on your being is by having so much in an instant which you have never had before and yet you weren't prepared for it. Take for instance drought. Drought is not good in terms of crop growing. But again when rain comes all of a sudden and it floods all of a sudden, it destroys rather than being a blessing. If one is stuffed with too much food at once, it chokes them rather than being a healthy addition to their system. 

That's why people who get rich all of a sudden for instance through gambling become a problem. In just a day someone amasses too much money they have never touched before and then they start fighting it. If such a one doesn't become proud all of a sudden, they waste it on meaningless pleasures. It's hard for them to keep a job once they get such monies, they think they have arrived. Talking of church, it will be a miracle to stay in a church which they may be richer than everyone including the pastor yet it's the one which has been nurturing them all this while. They switch friends, some switch their beloveds with whom they had plans to get married, at worst some divorce their spouses! By the way such people end up in debts and you wonder how they even got there. The money makes them think they can do a lot until they realize that they have limits. 

The same is true when someone inherits riches all of a sudden or get a deal which gives them money they wouldn't have touched before. Without knowledge of managing it, they lose it sooner than you expect. The heir is not well taught distances themselves from the relatives they would have helped because the wealth has caused them to think that if they get close, they will fight for it. 

Wealth accumulated overtime is preferred. Getting out of school and getting a fat salary in your first month is great. You will never relate with those who first look for a job for years until they land on one. When the former preaches, they might affirm that the later don't have faith or don't know how to pray. They may even say they are lazy or are not positioning themselves well. All these may have weight to some extent but the truth is they don't know what it means to wait for a long time without anything surfacing. On the contrary when someone understands the process of getting money, keeping it and growing it they can't become proud when they get rich. Even when they later get instant money, they don't change all of a sudden!