New Year. New Beginnings.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.“ But He said to him, “Friend, who sent me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?“ And He said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.“ (Luke 12:13-15)

Jesus follows this admonition with a parable about a man who concentrated his life solely on gathering possessions. He built large warehouses to store his goods. Every thought he had both waking and sleeping, he devoted to gathering unto himself more and more goods. And then suddenly, his life was over, and he was called to account for himself.

How easy it is to fall under the spell of greed. We see people all around us who have lots of things, and our first tendency is to envy those people. Our lives would be much easier if we had lots of things around us. Sometimes, like the man in this passage who asked Jesus to take his side in a family dispute, we want to enlist God on our side. We want him to be our advocate in gathering up the possessions that we seek.

God is indeed on our side. He is with us in every facet of our lives. But this admonition that Jesus gives to us against greed is one that we should take seriously. When does our desire for possessions become greed? Jesus tells us that our desires should not get in the way of our first responsibility as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven; that is, to seek first the righteousness of the kingdom. That should be our most precious and sought after possession.

Dear Lord, help us to remember to put the most important thing in our lives, your righteousness, as our number one goal . Amen.

This devotion was written by Jim Stovall and read by Leslie Ragland.

Outro:  Jonathan Outro 1 General

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Episode notes

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.