In spite of the various economic fluctuations, downsizings, and lower expectations that have occurred in recent years, we still live in a very materialistic society. Believers in the United States and other industrialized societies have very high standards of living compared to the rest of the world. The familiar conveniences and comforts, not to mention new products and services, lull us into a sense of ease and convince us that we can't live without them. Our daily lives so readily revolve around possessions -- cars, computers, furniture, appliances, financial investments. We all are tempted to fall into the trap that Jesus warned against in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches]." Material wealth prevented the rich young man from entering God's kingdom (Mark 10:17-22).
Because materialism can be such a stumbling block for believers, a serious reflection of these matters leads to a third reason for the Lord bringing us trials: to wean us away from worldly things. It has been my observation that most mature Christians, as the years pass by, will attribute less and less significance to the temporal things they've accumulated. At one time those things were the most desirable in life, but they gradually lose that status as the believer becomes aware that they cannot solve major problems or alleviate great anxieties.
When God does send certain trials or sufferings into our lives, they will confirm the inadequacy of material things to meet our deepest needs or to provide any true resources for our time of stress and pain. Through this process the Lord will reveal our need to be weaned away from worldly possessions and riches. Or He may even verify what many of us have already observed -- that worldly possessions and temporal experiences are less and less important to us as we become closer to Him.
Moses is a marvelous Scriptural example of one who accepted the need to be weaned off dependence on earthly props. Hebrews 11:24-26 contains a concise New Testament commentary on what happened to him. "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharoh's daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward."
Moses had been reared for forty years in Pharoh's household and educated as a prince of Egypt. He had risen to the top within the society of a leading super power of his day. Nevertheless, he took his eyes off his prestigious earthly position and became involved with the sufferings of his countrymen, the Israelites, who were oppressed as slaves. The Lord in effect made Israel's trial Moses' trial and weaned him off worldly things.
(from The Power of Suffering, John MacArthur Jr.)
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