Ever since my teenage years I had always believed that I would amount to something, I would do something really important and become a real benefit to all of mankind. Well here I am approaching my sixtieth birthday, I was laid off four years ago and here I am sitting at my computer wondering what went wrong. My wife calls me cursed and a loser and my kids say that the employers who were supposed to call me back are just pranking me.

I can remember asking God if He would just let me win the lottery all the good I could do with all that money. I could solve world hunger and I was even willing to cut God in for a slice of my winnings. I thought I had all the bases covered. How could God resist! I was going to cut Him in for 10%.

That reminds me of my dad, who never went to church. One day after he did his tax returns I was looking at the form before he mailed it and I noticed that he had declared $ 500.00 in donations to his church. I said "hey dad, what's this $ 500.00 in donations to the church, when have you ever been to church much less when have you ever donated any money to them?" His reply was straight forward and he said "Tim me boy, if I was a church going man I would attend church every week and if I attended church every week I think a donation of $ 500.00 for the year is more than reasonable." I replied "dad I didn't realize you were so generous."

I think the same principle applied to me when I asked God to win the lottery. Here I was thinking that I was doing God a favor by cutting Him in for 10% when the reality of the situation says that all the wealth on the planet belongs to God in the first place. I would be fortunate indeed if God would cut me in for any amount.

So the question still remained. God how come I'm not rich? My answer came to me the same way all of my questions get answered and that is through the Bible. I think you might be surprised like I was when I searched for my answer in the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 5:12
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

It appears that all that money wears heavily on the mind. My sleep is very important to me. I don't want to spend my nights worrying about who's trying to get my money and how I'm going to stop them.

1 Timothy 6: 9
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

Am I saying all rich people are bad people? Not at all, the Bible says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. If you put the needs of your money over the needs of the people or if you justify your actions by saying "it's nothing personal, it's just business" then you need to reevaluate your situation. If God has blessed you with great wealth then it is up to you to use that money in accordance with God's will. You need to be praying daily for God's guidance.

The temptation a lot of people fall into when they acquire a huge fortune is they tend to look down on people and talk down to them thinking they are better people because they have more money. They forget that everything belongs to God and they would have nothing if it weren't for God. Remember in heaven we will all be equal. No more upper, middle and low classes. We are all equal in God's eyes. To be fair I know that there are a lot of good rich people who have used their money very wisely and have benefited a tremendous amount of people.

It looks to me like being rich is not all what it's cut out to be. Where much is given, much is required. Being rich is just an illusion and doesn't lead to happiness at all. My prayer to be rich seemed like a reasonable request at the time and looked like it was the road to happiness but reading these verses is showing me that my intent to be rich and even wanting to be rich is evil and would lead me on a course to my own destruction.

It looks to me that if I were rich there would be a tremendous temptation for me not to depend on God for my salvation and rely on my riches to save me which would be a deadly mistake.

To the people of the earth that God has blessed with abundant wealth God will also require the rich to be accountable for every penny spent. How well do you think our rich people are doing? Having all that responsibility would be a tremendous burden to bear. No wonder the rich have a hard time sleeping. Having all that money would be like playing king of the hill. Everybody would constantly be trying to knock you off the hill. You would never know who your friends really are; you would always be worried about losing your money.

Not only is being rich a huge responsibility the Bible also says that it's almost impossible to enter the kingdom of God.

Luke 6:24
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

The above verse reminds me when I was young and my friends and I would go to the carnival. We would play the concession games for hours trying to win the big prize. Of course the game was rigged or so we thought and we would end up paying more money than the prize was actually worth only to receive a consolation prize or a booby prize after all our money was gone. That's what Jesus is saying in the above verse. When the rich person's life is over after all the heartache that they put themselves through, all the sleepless nights Jesus says the life that they lived in luxury is their only reward in the afterlife.

Being wealthy is an enormous responsibility one that cannot be taken lightly. As if all the above wasn't bad enough there's more the Bible has to say about being wealthy.

All the mighty men of the earth are all going to run and hide in the mountains because they are the ones responsible for destroying the planet that really belongs to God. At no other time in earth's history can we point a finger at those responsible for destroying the earth as we can today. With global warming, nuclear warfare and a world system that could care less about feeding and caring for their fellow man it would appear that as we progress in the final time period of man's reign pin pointing exactly who's at fault will become increasingly easier.

Well I learned a very important lesson. Be careful what you wish for! I thank God that the prayer to be rich was answered and that answer was "No!" Asking God if I could be rich would be like a little boy asking his dad if he could have poison to drink. God does what's best for us whether at the time we like it or not. At the time I felt I was let down then God led me to other Bible verses saying that I am richer than any billionaire on the planet.

The reason I can't be rich now is because God hasn't chosen the wealthy to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, He has chosen the poor! Our most important possession to God is our faith and our belief in Jesus Christ. God will not give us anything that will jeopardize these two foundations of our faith. So if I am an heir of the kingdom let's see if we can get a better idea of ​​just what being an heir of the kingdom means.

The maker of the universe is telling us that if we overcome we will inherit all things. God is going to give us all things, not some things or a few things, He is giving us everything. "Inherit all things" My mind can't even comprehend just how much that is. It makes all the riches of this world look puny in comparison. All the wealthy people of the earth who back stabbed their fellow man to reach the top now appears to me to be very lost and very foolish.

What I love about being a Christian is just when things seem to be depressing and bleak God always has all the bases covered. I wanted to be rich and important but God had something much better in mind for me.

How can we be sure that all these promises really pertain to us? Maybe Jesus gets the lions' share of the kingdom and we get what's left over. The Bible says that we are joint heirs with Christ.

My wife and I have a joint banking account and she has just as much access to the money as I do. The Bible also states that in heaven the first main event is the "marriage supper of the Lamb". Who's getting married? We are! We will be joined or married to Jesus Christ and we are going to be sharing in all things. Just as a husband and wife are one, we will also be one with Jesus Christ.