Walking with the Wise #185: You Can Change!

“The crown of the wise is their wealth,


but the folly of fools brings folly.”
—Proverbs 14:24

The Bible talks a great deal about money, simply because money is often an indicator of one’s spiritual state. God is the one who blesses us with the ability to have and make wealth, and we must make sure that we are good stewards of everything He has entrusted us with, while at the same time making sure that we do not delight in the gifts God gives more than we do the Giver Himself.

If we are wise stewards we will learn how to invest and use our money for God’s glory. Making money is not wrong, but the love of money clearly is (cf. 1 Timothy 6:10). One of the ways that God honors the wise is by blessing them financially. If we are wise stewards with what we have—even if it is very little, God will bless us with more—and one of those blessings could be financial (cf. Matthew 25:14-30).

The fool is not so blessed, however. The fool’s folly continually begets more folly. No matter what he does, and no matter how hard he tries, without changing his ways, he is like a dumb man throwing a boomerang, who expects it to go straight, not understanding that no matter how hard he tries it will continually come back to him.

The fool perpetuates his folly and continually experiences the consequences of it. Imagine a child of an alcoholic for a moment. The child has grown up seeing and experiencing the terrible consequences of alcoholism, but no sooner has the child grown up than he enters into that same lifestyle, even though he knows where it leads. That is a fool. The only way a fool can truly learn and change is through God’s intervention. When God intervenes in a person’s life, He usually does so via the sword of His Word, enlivened by the Spirit, cutting us at our very core, revealing our sinful tendencies and foolish choices. He rescues us and sets us on a path of righteousness for His name’s sake, and through Him, we can turn from our ignorant and foolish ways through the power given to us by the ascended resurrected Son who conquered sin and death, freed us from our sinful captivity and enabled us to pursue Him with a pure and undefiled heart.

May the Lord our God, who gives us life through His Son, enable us to see the freedom we have through the risen Son, and to live new lives, not imprisoned by family history or past choices, but as wise and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us—for His glory and our joy. Amen.