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James 1:9-11 (NLT)

9 Christians who are poor should be glad, for God has honored them. 10 And those who are rich should be glad, for God has humbled them. They will fade away like a flower in the field. 11 The hot sun rises and dries up the grass; the flower withers, and its beauty fades away. So also, wealthy people will fade away with all of their achievements.

"Now wait a minute Steve", you may be thinking. "I am poor and I'm not very happy. If I won the Lotto then I would be happy. I could do so much for the Lord."

Could you really? If you could do so much for the Lord with money, why can't you without money?
Jesus had no money but He was the most influential person to ever walk the earth.
No one came up to Jesus asking for money, but rather they sought the way to eternal life and forgiveness.

But then there was also one instance where Peter came to Jesus concerning taxes (see Matt. 17:24-27) and Jesus had no money but provided through God's own creation, a fish. And in the fishes mouth was a coin to pay the taxes.

But money means nothing to the Lord. To God it stinks just like the fish, because we as man serve or honor it more then God.
But our serving should not be dependent on how much money we have. But rather on how much the Lord has given you spiritually.

Remember the Holy Spirit gives us gifts as He wills, and I do not read anything about money being a gift of the Holy Spirit.
There is the gift of giving, but it is not referring to money only, but rather your heart and a giving attitude. Not always with money, but time, possessions, and most important love!

As James says here once again, money means nothing to God. He sees it as a flower that will soon die and fade away.
It's interesting that James uses the word flower, or you could think of it as a plant, or what about a tree?
We know that money is made from paper, and paper is made from trees.
But still we bow down to it, in a sense and put our trust and faith in it.
We should not rejoice in the physical riches we have, but rather the heavenly treasures we are setting up in heaven.

I saw a bumper sticker on an old beat up car that read, "Don't let the car fool you. My riches are in heaven!"

Where are your riches today? Or should I ask, based on today's verse, where is your joy? Is it in the Lord, or in your riches?

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