Episode 625

TODAY’S READING

Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

Proverbs 23:4-5

We have been talking about strongholds that we all have in our lives, and some of us have a stronghold or are really over workers, and that is something that we also need to break in. So what I’ve been loving about this series is that we are bringing different things that we don’t realize, maybe clouding or holding us back from the glory of God. These are essentially our little monsters living under our beds, and we are breaking them one by one. So today, we’re talking about rest. Today we’re talking about the power of stepping away from work and not overworking. And so what I wanted to focus today’s devotional on is the idea that when we are fixated on wealth, we get the complete opposite of what we are working so hard for, and this first wrote it out so clearly I’m going to read it again it says do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. It doesn’t say you will not be wealthy; it says do not weary yourself to gain wealth. And what I really wanted to focus on there is the difference between we will be wealthy, and we will be wealthy in many different areas of our lives, not just financially. But we will be wealthy in our relationships. We will be wealthy in our health. We will be wealthy and have many other aspects, not just money. But the issue here is that we cannot weary ourselves to gain wealth; we cannot overwork ourselves. Because as we continue to fixate on the little, we will miss a lot, and that’s why I’m able to receive all the things we miss. 

Most of us are walking around with this stronghold over us that we are over workers. We don’t know when to shut down the laptop. We don’t know when to walk away from the office. And I know that in the last two years, it has become even harder with that weird blend between working from home and when it’s time to be home. And if you are still working from home if your company went remote permanently, like my mind did. I encourage you to find yourself in a routine and to give yourself strict boundaries in which you will turn off your computer and when you can continue to work. Because if you can set those boundaries for yourself, you’re not only going to bless your life, but you’re going to bless the family around you, those that want to connect with you, those that want to hear your voice and see you there is nothing more important and nothing more valuable in this life than the time that we have today. Because we cannot go back to yesterday, and tomorrow is not promised.

Prayer:

Father God, we thank you, Lord, for this beautiful Friday. Today we are looking for rest in you, God, and so we’re looking to the stronghold, overworking. We know there’s power in stepping away from work and spending time with not only those that we love spending time with you but looking at how you continue to bless our lives and enrich us in our homes and our families in our circles of influence in our careers and our finances are many of us are working hard to build, to build for our homes to build for our families. And so God, we recognize that we cannot do this alone, and we need you, and in that, we need to surrender that to you. We need to take breaks, and we cannot continue to overwork because we know that it is not the way to wealth in our lives, not the way to wealth in our relationships, not the way to wealth in our health, not the way to wealth overall. So I thank you in advance for all that you do for us. Thank you for the strength to walk away from these strongholds; we pray this in your son’s mighty name. Amen.