For We Brought Nothing into the World, and We Can Take Nothing Out of It
What do we normally do before we go to bed?
One of our bedtime routines is (ie. Before all 3 kids go to bed), we read a paragraph or a verse from the Bible, and Mommy or Daddy will share more about it with the kids.
We share what we can learn about God or ourselves, and often we’d also share personal experiences related to the verse that we’re discussing.
We’ll then close in prayers.
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Be more of a giver, not just be a receiverFor the past weeks, we’ve been learning from the apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy. And, these past few days, we’ve been reading from 1 Timothy 6:2b-10. So much to learn from these few verses.
Anyway, I’d like to share this verse with you today:
1 Timothy 6:7
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
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This is such a great reminder to us.
As babies, we enter this world bringing nothing with us. And when we leave this world, we can bring nothing as well.
What we have, what we own, while on earth, is ‘given’.
If we lose what we have, remember that we don’t ‘own’ them to begin with, so we can never be angry with GodGod gives these blessings to us, things that we can enjoy while we’re on earth. They could be our home, our car, our nice clothes, food, possessions, money, including our family and good health.
And we need to remember, that what we have is not ‘ours’. It’s more like, ‘God lends them to us temporarily’. And we are responsible for managing and taking care of them.
ie. If for some reason we ‘lose’ what we have, we have no ‘right’ to be angry with God. God gives, and God has the full right to take them from us, anytime.
Okay yes I know, it’s easier said than done.
Going through such a process ourselves is very HARD.
eg. If we lose our job, if we lose a child, if we’ve been robbed and lose a chunk of our savings.
No one says that life will be easy all the time. But at least I’m sure of one thing, that God will never leave us to struggle alone. Pray and ask for extra strength and help at times of trouble, and He listens. He knows what’s best for us.
(This is the hard part, ie. Putting our ‘trust’ in Him, and not in ourselves)
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Anyway, I’m really thankful for the many reminders we learned today.
Our life is so temporary.
We need to be thankful for what we have.
We need to be thankful for what we haveIf we lose what we have, remember that we don’t ‘own’ them to begin with, so we can never be angry with God.
Since what we have is a blessing from God, we need to learn to share with others (starting with our own family) and be more of a giver, not just be a receiver.
(This is often one of the harder things to do, isn’t it?)
May God help us.
Amen.
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1 Timothy 6:7
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
