Focus: Things Money Can't Buy

Text: 1Kgs.21:2

"I will give thee the worth of it in money."

Ahab is one man who thought money could buy anything and everything. But Naboth taught him an important lesson of life. The lesson is that money is not everything and can't buy everything.

Simon the sorcerer also thought money was everything, and that with money virtually anything could be up for grabs. But he learned otherwise.

Let us see a few things that money can't buy.

*Life: you can't buy life. It is the gift of God. Money can buy robots, but not life.

*Health: money can buy medicine, but not health.

*Wisdom: money can buy books and acquire academic degrees and souvenirs, but it can't buy wisdom. Wisdom is a gift from God.

*Character: it is cultivated, not acquired with money. Money doesn't make a man; it only makes manifest the man. What is in man comes out when money comes.

*God: money can buy toys and make idols, but it can't buy God. No one can buy the gift or anointing of God with money. Peter tells Simon the sorcerer, "Thy money perish with you, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money" (Act.8:20). The Holy Spirit is not for sale. Money can buy olive oil in a bottle, but it can't buy the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

*Eternal life: money cannot buy eternal life. Salvation is not for sale.

Let us realize, for our own good, that certain things in life are not for sale. Love is not for sale. True happiness cannot be bought with money. A good name isn't for sale. Peace is not a commodity you can pick up from any supermarket. And the list goes on.

Make money your servant, not your master. Make your money subservient to God. Never make an idol out of money. Keep things in their right places. Stop mixing or twisting values. And make sure you sit loose on the things of this life. Nothing of earth compares with the joy of heaven.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter