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Work Hard to Avoid Poverty
September 10, 2011

In today's tough economic times, it seems like we all have to do more with less. When I go to the grocery store, I am spending about 50% more this year. While we are not facing any food shortage in this country, I suspect the price increase has to do with the much higher fuel costs and the weaker United States dollar. As there continues to be inaction and poorly considered action at the federal government level, one can suspect that this trend will likely continue. At some point we will come to a time where food and fuel may be plenty, but the costs of these are prohibitive. Under these circumstances that are vastly out of our control, there is little we can do to reverse this trend. All that we can do is manage our response within our own life and family activities. Should the prices continue to propel higher and higher, we may very soon come to a time not unlike that shadowed in the Book of Revelation where food and oil are very expensive.

Revelation 6:6
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Common teachings of this verse have suggested some future famine as the sole cause of the price spike suggested by this verse. Perhaps at this moment in time we are seeing the beginning of another cause to this result. It is in the modern global age that food is produced in one part of the world and eaten in another country. Prior to the financial crisis of this modern age, we may have never considered this possibility as a cause. However, the current crisis may or may not be the cause of the result shown in Revelation. Only time will tell, and our knowledge of the Bible gives us reason to focus and consider how prophecy is unfolding in daily events. While prophecy is unfolding, if we focus solely on prophecy, we miss other great opportunities to strengthen our financial situation, and it is always prudent, especially when the global economy is a mess top consider Biblical messages regarding poverty and wealth. Whenever I look at guidance from the Bible, a favorite book to consider is the Book of Proverbs. The advice provided thousands of years ago is relevant to today's world.

Proverbs 19:1
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.

Verse one shows that it is perfectly acceptable to be poor. Physical wealth is not the measure of greatness that God uses to discern the worth of an individual. God considers the quality of the person's character, and people equally consider that a person who is known for integrity is better than a person who is known for deceit.

Proverbs 19:4
Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.

Verse four shows that a person with money is much more likely to make friends than a person who is poor. Wealth and poverty are relative terms to the given situation. In the given situation, whatever is considered valuable is wealth, and whatever is considered to be of no value is poverty. This is why on a high school football team, the star athlete is the popular athlete and the second team player is a person of relative obscurity. Most never consider that the star athlete is able to perform to the degree of their ability because of the second team player. Without the roster depth of the second team player, the coach would be unwise to play the star athlete to the degree of current use, as an injury would leave the team with a void. Second team athletes who fill the void when the star athlete is unable to play often do not perform to the level of the star athlete, and much of this is because of limited practice time. Coaches who run practices solely favoring the star athlete do so while risking the team's ability to win. When it comes to day-to-day friendships, we need to be careful to spend money on our friends. If our spending money is the only reason why others want to be our friends, the relationship is less about being friends and more about having somebody exploit us. We should be willing to mutually invest resources in friendship, but a friendship requiring the uneven investment of resources is unlikely to last.

Proverbs 19:14
House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD.

Not everything is reduced to money in our life, and the most personal relationships of family cannot be reduced to money. There may be prudent reasons to protect personal wealth going into a marriage, but wealth should never be a reason to have a personal relationship. For those who are married, they are happily married when there is deep love between husband and wife. I suppose there are some who are married for purposes of what essentially looks like a business arrangement. I cannot imagine how these types of marriage would even compare to the marriage based on deep love. All relationships need to be based on mutual respect, even relationships as simple as a friendship. When a friendship is based on money, all that needs to happen is to have the money go away, and then the friendship will go away.

Proverbs 19:17
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.

As we have availability, we need to consider those who are poor. The most important to consider is as we have availability. We should do nothing that would hurt the family, as hurting the family will only prevent future chances of helping others who are poor. Our availability to help the poor is based on our resources and the needs of the poor. If we have money, or food, or other goods that the poor needs, only then can we help. We cannot help the poor when we lack these ourselves. We also cannot help the poor with their desires. We need to understand the difference between needs and desires. A poor person needs to eat nutritious food. A poor person does not need a bag of chips. A poor person may need the basics of living. A poor person does not need the big screen television. I suppose of our obligation to help the poor was based on meeting the desires of the poor, the poor could walk into any house and take everything. The only way to help people is to help them with their needs and to only do so when they are absolutely unable to provide for their own needs.

I suppose as the current economic situation evolves we will see variances in poverty and wealth. We are best served to be prudent with what God has given us, and to consider than money and wealth are tools that we can use for our advantage, and as we are doing this, we do need to help the poor in their need. And we do all of this while realizing there are those who will gladly take from us, who will gladly take what God has given us, so that they may satisfy themselves without consideration for the impact this has on our life. We need to be careful how we spend our money on our friends, and what we share with our friends, and make sure our friendships are based on mutual respect without an expectation of one friend paying more than the other friend. And as we get closer to the future time in prophecy where prices will sky rocket, we will truly need these types of friends. So choose friends wisely as a wisely chosen friend can help us to work hard to avoid poverty.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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