We do not know what is best for us!
(Charles Spurgeon, "A Good Start!")
Suppose that it were now put into the power of each one of us to be rich - I suspect that the most of us would be eager to avail ourselves of the opportunity. And yet few would consider whether it would be best for us to have the burden of wealth.It is a question whether some people, who live godly where they now are - would be half as good, or a tenth as happy - if they were lifted to wealth. I have seen choice men drivel under the influence of luxury.
We do not know what is best for us! It is sometimes very much better for us to suffer loss and disappointment - than to obtain wealth and prosperity!
How often our calamities are our preservatives! A lesser evil may ward off a greater one. Many a man might have soared into the clouds of folly - if his wings had not been clipped by adversity.
Agur's prayer, "Give me neither poverty nor riches," was a wise one.
But our Lord's is still better, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
"All these things shall be added unto you," and the measure of the addition shall be arranged by infallible wisdom. Temporal things shall come to you in such proportion as you yourself would desire them - IF you were able to know all things, and to perform a judgment according to infinite wisdom. Would you not prefer a lot selected by the Lord - to one chosen by yourself? You may joyfully sing with the Psalmist, "You shall choose my inheritance for me!"
"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you!" Hebrews 13:5