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PROGRAM D-8467
Are you living in the moment or for the moment?
Here are some of the most noticeable characteristics of living for the moment:
Money and possessions are very important.
When you live for the moment, money is seen to be the answer to every problem, and you spend your days living for money and what it can buy.
It is rare that I would recommend a secular book to you, but John Grisham, who is, I understand, a believer, wrote a novel entitled Testament. It is the story of a man who lived for possessions and money—who lived for the moment—and his encounter with a woman who lived in the moment. She was a missionary in the remotest corners of Bolivia and she had just inherited eleven billion dollars—but she wanted no part of it. It is the story of how money totally corrupted and ruined an entire family and wrecked great havoc in their lives. But this one woman, Rachel, had learned that money doesn’t matter, and she was free from the love of or need for money.
How much of your life is swallowed up with money and possessions? Maybe it’s time to simplify your life and get rid of some of those things that keep you living for the moment.
Jesus told the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:15-21) who built bigger and bigger barns and decided he would eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, “’You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21).
This man lived for the moment, and he is described as a fool. That is true of anyone who lives for the moment. They are fooled and they are fools. You can be fooled without being a fool. But if you refuse to confront your foolishness, you then become a fool. People who live for the moment are fooled and deceived by those riches and things. Would that describe you? We really must be on our guard because it is so easy to get swept away by this world’s priorities. Before you know it, you’re living for the moment.