April 8th, 20

 APRIL 8,  YOU ARE RICH

You are rich!  Did you know that?  Some of you are thinking that your creditors need to be informed of this!  You might not make the Forbes list of new billionaires this year but if you are in Christ you’ve made a much more important list than that. If you are in Christ you have been added to the list of those who are in the Lamb’s Book of Life,  and that makes you truly wealthy.  Paul said that those riches were achieved because someone else became poor, and that ‘Someone’ is Christ.  Christ became poor so that, by his poverty, he could make you rich. Jesus took our poverty upon himself in order to bestow on us the riches of Sonship, and Heaven.  In Ephesians we read that God  

...has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. (Eph 1:3)

These are heavenly riches.  I’m not suggesting these are cash riches, and Christians should all be millionaires. Paul is talking about spiritual riches that we have in Christ.  But these spiritual riches work their way into our physical lives. They free us up to live generous lives here and now. No matter how financially wealthy we are, we are rich.  And to the extent that we truly understand this, it will result in generous-hearted living. Paul wants us to follow through with the generosity that’s been born in our hearts. He doesn’t want us to stall out.  He wants us to finish whatever it is that God has inspired us to do. Maybe it’s offering a meal to someone that’s sick, spending time with someone who really needs it, giving financially to someone in need, helping to advance the cause of the Gospel, as was the case in this particular passage.  Whatever it is, don’t stall out! Finish whatever it is that God has inspired you to do.  Live out your generous life, because you are rich. You’ve been made rich.  They aren’t self-made riches, but riches achieved for us through the poverty of Christ.  He paid for this new-found wealth of ours, with His blood, so that we can have all of His life, now.  

May this inspire you to live out the riches that are yours in Christ.  Don’t stall out of those things God inspires you to do, but rather, live a generous life, through Christ.

You are loved!