IF GOD HAS WITHHELD MANY OF YOUR WORLDLY DESIRES, CONSIDER YOURSELF BLESSED

Mat 19:24  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 

Mat 19:25  When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 

Mat 19:26  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. 

What is it about riches that could cause them to pull a person away from salvation? Many of the greatest biblical Christians were abundantly wealthy, and yet had the approval of God, so wealth itself isn't necessarily the problem. 

Are we more likely to fall on our faces before God, acknowledging our inherent wickedness and need for a savior when we get beaten down by life and lose everything? Or after winning a large lottery? For the vast majority of us, it would certainly be the former. When we feel most vulnerable and hopeless - by comparison - it is relatively easy to defer to God. In general, vulnerability breeds humility, while prosperity is accompanied by pride and feelings of self-sufficiency.   

As with anything else, there are also different categories of wealth. Some people are primarily in love with flaunting their materialistic excesses like a fireworks display. They pride themselves on having the largest mansions or yachts; the most expensive automobiles; obscenely expensive jewelry, and on and on. These over-the-top external indicators are used as a yardstick to measure social status and importance. Hollywood immediately comes to mind. 

But in my opinion, there's an even more intoxicating and dangerous aspect of wealth which goes way beyond external symbolism; it is addiction to the accompanying feelings of POWER. The higher up the wealth chain you go, the more valued it becomes, as once you reach a certain net worth, merely flaunting wealth is no longer good enough. You will typically not see these people on television or in the news (they are certainly not the purported richest people in the world,) as they have graduated to the level of finding more fulfillment and satisfaction in pulling the strings from the shadows, incognito, and having figureheads do the heavy lifting while the cameras are rolling.

I liken this to what it truly means to be a Satanist or a hitman. While there are purely stereotypical versions of both of these, they are typically not the ones you need to concern yourself with. The Satanist dressed in all black, wearing clothing filled with inverted pentagrams is certainly someone to be wary of, but he is on the lower-tier, as he willingly shows his hand for all to see. In the same way, when people are asked to describe a hitman, most will think of a someone wearing a dark suit, sunglasses and earpiece, who carries a suspicious, rectangular looking case. In both instances above, these are nothing more than cliches - just like the wealth flaunters who value showboating above all else.  

The really dangerous Satanists wear fancy suits, slick smiles, and seek to display nothing on the outside that would tip you off as to who or what they are internally. Corporate America, politics and organized religion are filled with these types, and the bible explicitly warns us about them:

 2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 

In the same way, the effective hitman has no interest in mimicking the steroype and unnecessarily drawing attention to himself, as he knows this foolish ego gratification would be counter-productive to the task at hand. Much more effective to appear harmlessly average and fly under everyone's radar. 

So the more wealth and power one accumulates in life, the greater the likelihood that his pride and ego will expand proportionately. At a certain point, these things can cause a person to believe his own hype to the extent that he no longer feels in need of a Savior. This isn't to say that it's evil to work hard and be successful, as it certainly isn't. But unlike much of humanity, God is not in the least bit impressed by net worth or social status. And to whom much is given, more will be required (Luke 12:48).

So if you are a person of average means who is in the habit of looking at society's "elite" and envying their status, you may want to instead count your current blessings and be thankful that you don't have to navigate the boulder-sized stumbling block that sits between them and salvation. If the Lord has put obstacles in your way and it feels like He has punished you for every misstep and withheld the material prosperity you so desire, take heart and be grateful, as disciplining us and withholding potentially soul-destroying desires are expressions of His tremendous love!:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

Jesus Christ gave his life to save "blind" sinners, not those who "see" and are too prideful and arrogant to believe they have need of a Savior:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 

 Mar 2:17  When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 

In closing, as Christians, none of us measure up to the apostle Paul as Christians, and yet look at how lowly (and righfully so!) he views himself:

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 

This is an example of the kind of honest humility with which we should all view ourselves, for if not for the bloody atonement of Jesus Christ, not a single one of us would have the slightest chance of escaping hellfire and eternal damnation. All hope for salvation must be placed 100% in Him, not in ourselves. BY THE GRACE OF GOD!