Blessed Future and Abiding Hope

August 21

A pastor once quipped that we shouldn’t be jealous of a rich man because his wealth is simply an evidence of his superior intellect. When challenged by someone who refused to see the rich man’s wealth in this light because it sprang from a substantial inheritance, the pastor retorted, “Well, that just means his daddy was smarter than your daddy.”

Regardless of how much money is in question, wealth does spring initially from someone’s innovativeness, intelligence, resourcefulness, and willingness to take a risk. Those who inherit wealth often lack the entrepreneurial skills of the progenitor of their fortune. They are simply advantaged by having been born into a wealthy family.

How blessed we are that wisdom is not the exclusive birthright of the brilliant or the well-born. How blessed we are that the Lord has offered wisdom to any who will seek it or ask it of Him (Proverbs 4:7). He goes on to say through Solomon in Proverbs 24:14, “Know that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there is a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.”

Fortunes can be lost suddenly without warning. The Great Depression saw that happen to countless millionaires who were rendered penniless when the financial crash occurred. Those who invest large sums of money do so with the knowledge of the potential for loss. But the one who seeks and finds wisdom knows nothing can rob him of the blessed future and abiding hope that wisdom assures to him!