True Wealth

    West Africa is a place of extremes.  It was extremely hot, and now it is extremely wet. You have the extremely rich and then the extremely poor.  Where's the middle?  I don't see a lot of middles here.  Although Skip and I would consider ourselves middle class, here many would consider us rich.  Our primary concern each day is not where our food will come from, or will I be able to buy the medicine I need. We do not struggle to find food, shelter or clothing.  Those needs are met for us and that automatically moves us out of the tier of "the poor".  Yet, being poor encompasses so much more than just your physical needs or material goods.  I often think of how in Revelation the Laodiceans are rebuked for thinking they were rich and had need of nothing, yet the Lord said they did not know they were poor, wretched, blind and naked.  Their poverty had nothing to do with their wealth. The Lord says He knew their works that they were neither hot nor cold, they were lukewarm. (Rev.3:15-17)
    This makes me think, what does it mean to be lukewarm?  Is it apathy, a lack of passion for the Lord and the things He cares about?  Is it being comfortable where you are and not stretching your faith? Is it that you don't worry about tomorrow, not because your trusting the Lord, but because you have wealth you've saved and you figure you'll be alright?  When we look at faith, knowing that according to Hebrews 11:7 without it, it is impossible to please God.  True poverty would be not having faith. Being poor is something more deeper than material things one can touch.  It is a lack of an essential element that one needs in order to come to God, it's a lack of faith. When one doesn't actually believe that God sees them or is with them.  That they take care of themselves, that they meet their own needs. God is something they may talk about but when they need something, they'll take care of it.  That's a true poverty, that doesn't even know it's poor.
It has nothing to do with money.
    Okay, so now living here in Burkina has brought me to a brutal place of honesty. I'll admit, "Yes, I want to be rich... rich in faith."  True wealth is faith.  You can't touch it or buy it, buy it's the only thing that moves mountains and its the only way we get into heaven. Those heroes in the faith in Hebrews, they are what those who are rich in faith look like.  They had wealth that had nothing to do with possessions.  They believed and it was accounted to them as righteousness. May we all have an account full of faith.