Consider What You Really Need

Remember how short a time thou must keep and enjoy the wealth which thou hast gotten.

How quickly thou must be stripped of all!

Canst thou keep it when thou hast it? (1 Cor. 7:31.) Canst thou make a covenant with death, that it shall not call away thy soul?

Thou knowest beforehand that thou art of short continuance, and the world is but thy inn or passage; and that a narrow grave for thy flesh to rot in, is all that thou canst keep of thy largest possessions, save what thou layest up in heaven, by laying it out in obedience to God.

How short is life!

How quickly gone!

Thou art almost dead and gone already!

What are a few days or a few years more?

And wilt thou make so much ado for so short a life?

and so careful a provision for so short a stay?

Yea, how uncertain is thy time, as well as short! Thou canst not say what world thou shalt be in tomorrow.

Remember, man, that Thou must die!

Thou must die!

Thou must quickly die!

Thou knowest not how soon!

Breathe yet a few breaths more, and thou art gone!

And yet canst thou be covetous, and drown thy soul with earthly cares?

Dost thou soberly read thy Savior's warning, Luke 12:19-21? Is it not spoken as to thee? "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be rerequired of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

So is every one that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God."(Remember Gehazi, Achan, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, Demetrius, Demas. Jer. 6:13; 8:10.) If thou be rich today, and be in another world tomorrow, had not poverty been as good? Distracted soul! Dost thou make so great a matter of it, whether thou have much or little for so short a time? And takest no more care, either where thou shalt be, or what thou shalt have to all eternity? Dost thou say, thou wilt cast this care on God? I tell thee, he will make thee care thyself; and care again before he will save thee. And why canst thou not cast the care of smaller matters on him, when he commandeth thee?

Is it any great matter whether thou be rich or poor, that art going so fast unto another world, where these are things of no signification? Tell me, if thou wert sure that thou must die tomorrow, (yea, or the next month or year,) wouldst thou not be more indifferent whether thou be rich or poor, and look more after greater things? Then thou wouldst be of the apostle's mind, 2 Cor. 4:18, "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Our eye of faith should be so fixed on invisible, eternal things, that we should scarce have leisure or mind to look at or once regard the things that are visible and temporal.

A man that is going to execution scarce looks at all the bustle or business that is done in streets and shops as he passeth by; because these little concern him in his departing case. And how little do the wealth and honours of the world concern a soul that is going into another world, and knows not but it may be this night! Then keep thy wealth, or take it with thee, if thou canst.

Consider What You Really Need

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=20548&forum=34]R.Baxter, Excerpt from here[/url]

1 Tim 6v7-8, 'For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

vs8, 'And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.'

Of course we know we need water and shelter, although the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head, Matt8v20.

When we gravitate toward the temporal, and the materialistic, we lose sight of eternity.

God is seeing all that we are doing, whether for or against Him, and the day of judgment draws closer every moment.

How ready are we for it?

Good post.

Be often with those that are sick and dying, and mark what all their riches will do for them, and what esteem they have then of the world; and mark how it useth all at last. Then you shall see that it forsaketh all men in the hour of their greatest necessity and distress; (Jer. 17:11; Jam. 5:1-3.) when they would cry to friends, and wealth, and honour, if they had any hopes, If ever you will help me, let it be now; if ever you will do any thing for me, O save me from death, and the wrath of God!

But, alas! such cries would be all in vain!

Then, oh then! One drop of mercy, one spark of grace, the smallest well-grounded hope of heaven, would be worth more than the empire of Caesar or Alexander!

Is not this true, sinner?

Dost thou not know it to be true?

And yet wilt thou cheat and betray thy soul?

Is not that best now, which will be best then?

And is not that of little value now, which will be then so little set by? Dost thou not think that men are wiser then than now?

Wilt thou do so much, and pay so dear for that, which will do thee no more good, and which thou wilt set no more by when thou hast it? Doth not all the world cry out at last of the deceitfulness of riches, and the vanity of pleasure and prosperity on earth, and the perniciousness of all worldly cares?

And doth not thy conscience tell thee, that when thou comest to die, thou art like to have the same thoughts thyself?

And yet wilt thou not be warned in time?

Then all the content and pleasure of thy plenty and prosperity will be past: and when it is past it is nothing. And wilt thou venture on everlasting woe, and cast away everlasting joy, for that which is today a dream and shadow, and tomorrow, or very shortly, will be nothing?

The poorest then will be equal with thee. And will honest poverty, or over-loved wealth; be sweeter at the last?

How glad then wouldst thou be, to have been without thy wealth, so thou mightst have been without the sin and guilt, How glad then wouldst thou be to die the death of the poorest saint! Do you think that poverty, or riches, are liker to make a man loath to die?

Or are usually more troublesome to the conscience of a dying man?

O look to the end, and live as you die, and set most by that, and seek that now, which you know you shall set most by at last when full experience hath made you wiser!

Beware the Perils of Riches

Our eye of faith should be so fixed on invisible, eternal things, that we should scarce have leisure or mind to look at or once regard the things that are visible and temporal.

Oh yes, that is it. Oh brother, if we just had more men and women of God that would practice that, not just say it. It is there where God would want us to be; there is no pride there brother. There is no selfishness and no envy. It is there where we are the lowest and God the highest. Oh how I pray that this would come to pass around me. I pray that one day people would notice that Life was made so that it would Glorify God, and that anything less than that is not life, but death. Oh may God change our ways of thinking in such an extraordinary way that our actions would be based on this sublime consept:"...for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.". Thank you brother for bringing this up. God bless you and may he use you mightily in his kingdom.