"Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself."-- Deuteronomy 18:16-17. Moses, warning against the accumulation of things as it can cause the heart to turn away.
The heart. This particular issue of course is a very broad topic because the Scriptures speak everywhere about how easily the heart can turn away from the Lord. In this particular passage, we see that the accumulation of goods can cause the heart to turn away from the Lord.
The heart. Needless to say when we are talking about the heart, we are not talking about the organ that pumps blood through our system. When we speak of the heart, we are talking about the very seat of our emotions and our will. So how does the accumulation of material goods impact our heart, the seat of our emotions and our will? Also, before I go any further my intent here is not to suggest that wealth is a bad thing. My point here is simply to show how the accumulation of material goods can cause our heart to turn from the Lord.
So the question is how, how does the accumulation of material goods cause our heart to turn from the Lord? This last Sunday when we were praying for the offering at Sunday services, the person saying the prayer said that with blessings come great responsibility. That really got me to thinking because it is so true. We do not by any means deserve the blessings that God has given us, material or otherwise. That being said, when God gives us said blessings, He expects us to treat those blessings with the utmost care and that includes our money. God has lined out in Scripture how we ought to use our money including instructing us to give a portion back to Him in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2. But our blessings our not isolated to material goods.
Recently, I have received one of the greatest blessings I could ever ask for but it is not a material object, she is a person. She is the girl that stole my heart. However, what I constantly remind myself of is the fact that she is a blessing from God Himself and with that comes the responsibility to treat her with the utmost care.
The heart. I bring up people in this discussion as well because Deuteronomy 18:16-17 also touches on the accumulation of wives causing the heart to turn away. Of course, in today's society the accumulation of wives is not a major issue but the principle still applies. If we find ourselves trying to please people left and right and then forget about pleasing God, our heart can turn away from the Lord. When God places on us the blessing of the responsibility to care for another person, be it a boy/girlfriend, spouse, child or even just a friend, it is our responsibility to care for that person as the Lord would have us to care for that person. Ephesians 5:21-6:9 is a great passage on how to do this practically. This may involve patience, humility, and not to mention self control among so many other things.
These are all issues of the heart. Again, the heart is a very broad topic. In this case, we have looked at how the accumulation of blessings can ironically turn the heart away from the Lord. My encouragement to you this morning is simply this. Go back to the Scriptures to find ways that you can use your blessings to the glory of God. I have given a couple of examples in this blog.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!
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