God-given provisions

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" Luke 12:20

You can read: Luke 12:13-21

            We work to earn our keeps.  Each day, it's either we get a salary, or we have our own business to sustain ourselves.  We accumulate gadgets, personal conveniences and say that these things are our rewards for the work well done.  Sometimes, people judge us by the coolness of the gadgets like the wide flat screen TV, the turbo-charged luxury car, the spacious home, the dazzling bling-blings and all other luxuries.  Then, we are prompted to make more to gain more gadgets, and find ourselves ensnared in a culture of wanting more and more for ourselves.

            It's definitely not a crime to appreciate our efforts and reward ourselves with the fruits of our labor.  The tricky part is this:  being so consumed by that pursuit that God is left out altogether.  The trickier part is getting all of those luxuries just for the sake of getting them.  In short, using our finances for personal gain, rather than for glorifying God.
           What did God tell the fool who built big barns, and when he saw his big barns, tore them down so he could build bigger ones?  "Your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"  He ended the parable by saying, this is what happens to those who stores things up for himself but is not rich toward God.

            Let's not make the mistake of storing things up just for our sakes, we can work, buy and enjoy the blessings God gives us, but we have to remember, they are blessings, God-given provisions that we can use to acknowledge how good He has been in our lives.