“As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on uncertain riches but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
Hope on God! God is: loving, merciful, generous, kind, righteous, wise – and willing to let us go our own way if we refuse to see in Him our hope.
We can endure the now if we have hope for the future; God has promised us He will not fail us. He has required that we recognize that He is our hope before He can work fully to bring the hope of the future to reality of accomplished fact in this moment.
The problem of lack is not due to God’s reluctance, but to our reluctance to make Him our first hope – our only hope – and trust Him enough to guide us constantly – the labyrinth of life cannot be understood from the point where we are. We must look up to God, who perceives the overall perspective, and go wherever He points if we are to realize our hopes. We can bumble and stumble a whole lifetime if we merely look ahead and go by our own “instincts” or chance or trial and error.
The rich have even more need to seek god’s sure guidance because they are in a favored position to enable many others to perceive God also and receive His help.
Prayer of Response: Oh, Lord, I seek Your guidance and Your choice for me – the path which will bring me and, all others possible, closer to you. Oh, I know there are all manners of distractions I would like to pursue – but by my will, I yield to your will in holding me back from them, or removing me from them.
Oh Lord, I pray in Jesus name that you build in my spirit, my mind, my body and my emotions a love so large and so encompassing that all else is perceived through this love: I know in my heart that this is the meaning of “the Kingdom within”.
Enable me to set my hope only on You, so that with every fiber of my faith and my being I am as you envision me in Christ. Christ, total love, total obedience.
I reach not for fame or gold,
But love perceived and known.
May I abide within the home
Provided by my Lord:
Only goodness and kindness
Enter the portals He has carved.
No sin, no wrong, no selfish thoughts or word or deed
Can withstand the penetrating Ray.
Of Love proved for all time
that beams over all the world.
Wherever this ray is allowed to shine.
The heart is moved from stone
Into the softness of a dove.
And though the large stone was by the portals blocked,
The yielding softness of the dove
Slips through with greatest ease.
Meditations of Marie's Heart 