Today’s scripture: Luke 12:13-23 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message)
As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two.
My thoughts on this passage (Jenni Clarkson):
“You can’t have everything… Where would you put it?” That’s one of my favorite lines from comedian Stephen Wright.
It seems that if you were the rich man in this parable, you would simply build bigger store houses. When I was a kid, my uncle bought an extra house for his stuff. That sounds like something I made up, but my dad used to call him “the junk man.” After years of collecting things at auctions, flea markets and yard sales, the piles of things in their house were so great that you couldn’t walk through it.
So did he have a sale? Nope, he bought an extra place to keep more stuff. He talked about having a shop to sell the stuff, but I think he just liked having it too much to part with it. I think it gave him comfort to know that it was there.
Most of us live in a consumer-oriented society, but the parable makes it obvious that we didn’t invent the collector’s mentality. Too often we think that piles of things will give us peace and security. I’m afraid that’s what my uncle was doing, trying to fill a hole in his life. Perhaps the man in the parable was doing the same thing. At the end of the story, God calls the man a fool. It is foolish to think that things can fill a “God-sized” hole. He couldn’t take all his stuff with him, but he could have taken a relationship with God into eternity.
Thought for today: Where is my focus? Am I focused on my needs, or am I looking to the One who can provide for my needs?
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to start, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.