A Thought Concerning the Mega-Lottery

Consider this from Proverbs 30:8-9:

...give me neither poverty nor riches, but only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much & disown you and say,'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor & steal, and dishonor the name of God.

On the flip side we might wish someone would win the lottery who would do a lot of good with the money like give to the poor, adopt, support missionaries, etc. We may even wish that person was “me.”

But let us be honest with ourselves. If (insert your name here) won the lottery, how would I truly respond? Would I truly be generous with my winnings, or would I become suspicious of everyone around me and hoard it or spend it all on myself?

I would like to think I would be generous with it. But I know that my heart is evil, and without Christ’s empowerment I would likely fall into the second camp and perhaps end up in a short amount of time broke or even bankrupt as so many lottery winners tend to do.

Perhaps we should just rest in the wisdom of God who knows our hearts better than we do. If he sees fit to bless us with wealth, then may we be faithful stewards of that blessing. If he sees fit to withhold from us great financial wealth, then may we see that as a blessing of God keeping us from temptation beyond what we can bear.

Either way, our hope must remain in the Lord, not in commas and zeroes.