Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 ESV
The shrewd businesswoman built a lifestyle empire of home and hospitality, but it wasn’t enough.
Even going to prison for fraud wasn’t enough to stop the cookbook queen’s relentless pursuit of wealth and fame. The world lauded her post- prison comeback, saying she’s “walked an illustrious path to get to where she is today.”[1] By most standards she’s very rich. But a poet once observed: “”Beware of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are.”[2]
Here’s the truth, in the words of scripture: “We brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it” (I Timothy 6:6b).
Though we may think of the rich as “blessed,” one writer points out, “The more we saturate ourselves with earthly pleasures, the more pickled our minds become, sitting and soaking in worldly wants to the point that we hardly know what our souls need…. Jesus has in mind deeper blessings for us.[3]
One of those blessings He has for us is contentment. The Bible says that “True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth (I Timothy 6:6a). Forgiveness and personal relationship with Jesus is our way to godliness, but how do we get to that contentment? To begin, let’s look at just what we’re saturating ourselves with. Are we training our minds, pickling our brains, in covetousness on social media every spare minute we have? Or always overworking?
The Bible book of Hebrews encourages us: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for [Jesus] has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you'” *Hebrews 13:5 ESV).
[1] Bennett, Colette. “Martha Stewart’s Net Worth: How the Talented Homemaker Got so Rich – Thestreet.” Thestreet.Com, 26 Jan. 2024, www.thestreet.com/personalities/martha-stewarts-net-worth-how-the-talented-homemaker-got-so-rich.
[2] “Rudyard Kipling Quotes (Author of The Jungle Book) (Page 11 of 22).” Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6989.Rudyard_Kipling?page=11. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
[3] Tada, Joni Eareckson. “A Taste for Jesus.” The Practice of the Presence of God, Multnomah, 2023, p. 55.
