HANDLE YOUR WEALTH WITH CAUTION
Our God is a generous God who delights in the prosperity of His saints. He grants them the power to get wealth. However, this wealth has eroded the faith of some while others have turned their trust to the wealth they have.
FOCAL SCRIPTURE
1 KINGS 11:9
Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Vs. 9
God so loved Solomon that He blessed him to the extent where silver was like ordinary stones during his reign. Since he had so much material things, he began to get women contrary to the laws of Kings. He married 700 wives and added 300 concubines. Most of His wives were non-Israelites; they were princesses from various kingdoms so they had a different view from that of the Israelites and worshiped a different god.
They turned Solomon’s heart away from His God. Not many kings or presidents in our time can beat Solomon’s evil record.
1 KINGS 11:4
As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. Vs. 4
Wealth brings power and wealth is a very dangerous thing. Solomon married these strange wives because he could afford to. This is one area where poverty acts as a safeguard for the poor.
Many Christians today as turned their backs from their God because they are wealthy but they forgot their little beginning when they had nothing and was active and burning for God for that wealth, work, business, school, marriage and the rest. They become too occupied or busy with the tag “I AM TOO BUSY” for God because of that same prosperity God gave them.
They forgot how they fasted and prayed and made a sacrifice for that position, they forgot there first love, they’ve forgotten their hunger and thirst for God when they never had this things and all they look up to now as their god is that same wealth God gave to them.
There are some evil things that the poor people could have acquired if they were rich, but because they are poor, their minds are completely away from those things. But it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want them to be rich, He is God and He knows the end form the beginning so He knows that when this particular person get this wealth, I will no longer hear him cry out to me for help, no longer hear is praises to me, no longer hear is worship to me, no longer enjoy his fellowship with Me, no longer have a heart talk with him as friends with friends do, no longer will he depend on Me and know that I am his Source.
God loves us and wouldn’t want us to go astray all for the sake of wealth.
Solomon got so intoxicated by his wealth that he multiplied wives to himself, who then influenced him to build shrines to their gods and goddesses near Jerusalem. They further influenced him to join them in worshiping their idols until his heart was totally turned away from God.
God became angry with the one He loved so much. If Solomon was poor, would he have been able to get those number of wives?
The wealth that takes you away from God’s will and the Word is a curse not a blessing. Handle your wealth with lots of care, prayers and the fear of God.
Before He gave you that position, He trusted you and believed that you would be able to handle that position to glorify Him in Heaven but when you let that position control you, you’ve lost his trust and He won’t be move you to the next level.
Scripture says
If you can’t handle the little one He gave you, how do you expect Him to give you a larger one.
The wealth that is not brought under God’s control will end up controlling its owner but any wealth that is under God’s supervision brings more blessing to the owner.
Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. Vs. 10
So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Vs. 11
Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Vs. 23
Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” Vs. 13
When you don't learn to handle your wealth with caution, like Solomon, God will tear you down.