Opportunity

James 5:1-4 Come now, [you] rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon [you!] Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Everyday we are faced with opportunities to do good or bad. With wealth in our possession, we have greater opportunity to do much good or evil. 

I have come to realize that sin is expensive and that some don't sin because they have no means of doing it or haven't been tempted to do so. With money in one's possession, men buy their way in corrupt systems of this world. Crime, gangs, immorality etc cannot survive unless someone is heavily financing them. We have seen instances where very talented worshippers are lured into secular music because of the quick money alcohol companies, tobacco companies, clubs, bars pour unto artists for a few hours of performance. Many illicit videos which people post earn them lots of money because someone out there is funding them. The vices of homosexuality we hear of, people are recruited at the premise of money. 

Do we still have you in church because you haven't been tempted yet by the money or because you genuinely love God? If you have resisted the temptation even when it presented itself, we thank God you did. Many are selling their birthrights for filthy lucre. Do you know that many broken friendships, church splits, divorce, etc are because of money? Other reasons may come in but the main one which may not be mentioned is money. Is it any wonder that such money gained in the wrong way is luxuriously spent to fill the empty void in their hearts and to silence the voice of their conscience crying out to them that what they did to get is was not the right way?

Better to have little with God in it than to have a lot without God in it. In fact Little is much when God is in it. You have the opportunity to do so much good today with your money by investing it in the gospel to change lives. 

Sometimes insults are hurled at rich men how they withhold wages of those who work for them, you too will be rich in possessions soon, will you be the kind who does the same? Will you like King Ahab take what is not lawfully yours because you have so much power because of your money, 1 Kings 21:1-16? Far be it from you. May your heart settle to grow wealth through God's way and use every opportunity to use it for good.