May Ransom Their Life

Proverbs 13:7-8 – One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. A person’s riches may ransom their life, but the poor cannot respond to threatening rebukes.

2 Corinthians 6:4-10 – Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Proverbs 11:24 – One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

Proverbs 10:15 – The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

Application:

• ·         True wealth does not consist in worldly possessions but in being “rich toward God”.
• ·         Generosity is the path to blessing and further prosperity. By contrast, the stingy do not make friends and hurt themselves in the long run.
• ·         Wealth brings friends and power—but ultimate security is found only in God. Poverty has no security—as it has no influence or friends.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV