The Alpha of Greed

UV 3046/10000 The Alpha of Greed
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Luke 12 v 15
The biggest and most widespread spiritual disease affecting humanity is greed. It is the cause of much misery, crime, deception, breakdown of relationships and families. Jesus warns us to avoid greed or covetousness for God hates the spirit of covetousness. It is the equivalent in His eyes of every form of depravity and idolatry. Scripture states that even if one becomes rich, he or she should not set his heart upon it. Covetousness ensnares and leads people into all kinds of troubles and they pierce themselves with many sorrows. In the parable of the sower, Jesus compares those who are caught up in covetousness as the ones whose lives being full of cares and desires and pleasures of this world are not spiritually fruitful or productive.
Whatever be our station in life, if we are at the border of need, we need to rely on faith and God’s grace in our lives. This is the reason in the book of Proverbs, the prayer is not for abundance but for provision of needs so that we do not forget God in our prosperity and abundance even as we do not need to curse ourselves for misery of poverty. The certainty of the truth that we do not bring anything material into this world and cannot take anything material out of the world should enable us to prioritise the kingdom of God in our lives. The kingdom of God consists of godliness, contentment, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit and righteousness or leading a life of integrity.

One of the best counter measures to the spirit of covetousness gripping us is to learn to give to the needy, the faithful, the poor and helpless from whatever the Lord has placed in our hands. We should never pin our hope of security on wealth for it cannot protect us from most of the ills and afflictions of this life. Instead of a spirit of covetousness or greed, we need to cultivate an attitude of generosity. Money is said to be a good servant but a bad master and we should use it to serve the purpose for which the Lord has placed us in this world. Our decisions or choices of what we should do should not be focussed on how much we can gain monetarily from a particular action. Scripture assures us that if we seek His kingdom and His righteousness, all things we need will be added unto us. Hence, from the biblical perspective, our primary wealth is spiritual well being, secondary wealth is our health and psychological well being and tertiary wealth is only the monetary and material.