God's Gift of Money: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

The American dream

Are you an American? Do you feel entitled to a full share in the American Dream? You know what I mean--a guarantee that you will be better educated than your parents, make more money than your parents, live more luxuriously than your parents. Every day in every way things are getting better and better. And of course your kids will surpass you.

Do young Brits, Nigerians, and Luxembourgers have national expectations? Where did our notion come from? An American historian in 1931 theorized that it came from the Puritan ethic of hard work and frugality and that the belief accelerated with the opening up of the endless frontier and discovery of gold. Somehow that desire has morphed into a feeling of entitlement; and like all entitlements that don’t happen, it leaves people disappointed and sullen.

Be careful what you dream for. “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:9,10). It may please God to load up your life with assets and resources; he then will expect huge things of you.

On the other hand, it may please him to prepare you for unique service to his plans by subtracting wealth from you.