Lottery Winners Of Life

Material possessions have become so important and so valued over the course of history, that today what we have in material possessions in most cases outweighs what we have that was given to us from the King of Kings and Lord of Lord's, our father in Heaven, God. The worst part about this is that people have made their worldly possessions more important than their relationship with God. The people that do this are not necessarily always secular. There are many that are regular church attendees and they claim to have a great relationship with God. My question is, What part of "You can't take it with" you don't they understand? We can only have one master and it's either going to be God or something less.

There was a time in my life that I thought what I had in material things was the most important thing and many of us go through this phase. However at some point and I'm not sure when, I grew up and my thinking matured. Now I realize that I need to have certain things to get by. I need to have the basic essentials including a car, clothes and entertainment for my children. I don't NEED more than that. Anything beyond that goes into the WANT category which I have to be very careful with and not allow that to get out of control. My thought process has indeed changed over the past few years. Now I believe if it is God's will for me to have something, he will make it happen. Otherwise it's of my desire which again needs to be kept in check.

I can understand how easy it is for people to get caught up in material possessions, because it's all over the television, radio, newspapers. It's in your face all the time, the world screaming to you that YOU NEED TO HAVE ONE OF THESE. We hear that so often, that we end up believing it. The same thing holds true with Satan and his menacing ways. If you allow him to speak to you long enough, he'll convince you to do things that will pull you away from God. His persistence is his strongest feature and he wears people down and they give in. Do they realize they're giving in to the Devil? I highly doubt it, but if they think about it afterwards and someone explains this to them, it would be really hard not to see it. Hopefully it helps to prevent giving into future attacks.

Every time I receive a blessing from the Lord, I always feel like I just hit the lottery. I'm the richest guy in the world at that moment and as long as I continue to keep my heart and mind on those things that I've been blessed with, I'll continue to feel that awesome feeling of being a winner of Gods lottery. Just recently I recalled something I said in 1991 when I got married to the most beautiful person in the world to me, my wife Rosalie. I told anyone that would listen at the time, that I felt like I had just hit the lottery. It was a feeling that no material possession could ever even come close to. As a lifelong car lover I'll give a cool example from that perspective. I have driven some of the most exotic cars ever made and cars are right up there near the top of the material things we'd love to have.

You couldn't give me one hundred Lamborghini's in exchange for my wife. She has always been and continues to be a blessing in my life. To be able to say that after 14 years is awesome. That's not to say that neither of us has let our attention go everywhere else but on each other at times over the years, but when we put our focus back on God which is always going to take effort because of the world we live in, we always come back to being grounded and seeing each other as we should. After we got married it took us 5 years to have our two wonderful children. We could have been blessed with a boy or a girl or identical twins, but God did more. He gave us the "dream team" a boy and a girl, Linda and AJ (Adam Jr).

They have been the biggest blessing in both of our lives. They bring us so much joy, that I could never imagine being without them. I hate to even go away for an overnight without them. No earthly possession will ever bring me that kind of joy. What material thing can you buy that can make you feel like the most important person in the world on a day when the world has beaten you up? What earthly possession can we have that will improve our relationship with God? The answer is nothing, no earthly possession can do any of that for us. The best things we have in life are the things that didn’t cost any money at all. Relationships with family, friends and others are the most important things we can have. We need to value those things and keep them in the right perspective. Relationships require work yes, but the benefits are so great that what little work is required of you can seem really insignificant. When Jesus came, he was all about relationships, not religion. He didn’t surround himself with people that were really important that had political power. He surrounded himself with fishermen, tax collectors and sinners.

Luke 5:27-32 (New Living Translation)
Jesus Calls Levi (Matthew)
27 As Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax-collection booth. "Come, be my disciple!" Jesus said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. 29 Soon Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests were there. 30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?" 31 Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor--sick people do. 32 I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough."

The best relationships we can have don’t come from seeking out others in prestigious positions that we might somehow benefit from. That’s not a relationship at all, the best relationships come from people having a mutual respect for one another, and when both parties benefit from the friendship/relationship. Relationships where time is invested always produces fruit in some way. If you have or find a relationship that works like that, you too might feel like you hit “The Lottery of Life”

I invite you to pray this with me

Father I thank you for the friendships and relationships that I have had and still have. Thank you also for the relationships that didn’t work out that I learned lessons from and that made me grow. The lessons learned from these relationships made it possible for me to be the person I am today and to have the productive, open, relationships that can last a lifetime. Dear God, you know exactly what we need in this world and you provide it faithfully all of the time. We just fail to see it often times. Father I pray for the wisdom and discernment for myself and all people, that they would learn from past relationships that may have caused pain in their lives. That they would learn valuable lessons from them and go on to be in successful productive relationships that make them feel like they just hit the Jackpot in the Life.

I ask this in Jesus Precious Name

Amen

God Bless You All.








“The Sharpshooter”