SYNOPSIS: In our culture, we get caught up in the chase for the temporal—fame, fortune, pleasure, and possessions—far too easily. God’s Word constantly reminds us that those things will do us no good the second we step from time into eternity. And if we fail to recalibrate our instruments, at some point, maybe in this life, but for sure, in the next, we will come in for a very rough landing. No, you can’t take it with you, but you can take your experience of pursuing what God’s wisdom calls us to prioritize: your experience of knowing God and internalizing the wisdom that comes from him, then living what you know and what you’ve embraced in your moment-by-moment life on earth!
Moments With God // Proverbs 3:15
Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.
“You can’t take it with you!” You have heard that saying, haven’t you? No matter what you amass in this life—wealth, possession, power, and fame—it will all stay outside the box on the day they lower that box containing your cold, clammy body six feet under. I have conducted dozens and dozens of funerals in my time as a minister, and I have yet to see a hearse pulling a U-Haul behind it. And it will always be that way. Why? Simply because of this one unalterable truth: You can’t take it with you!
I spoke with a friend a while back who experienced a pretty rough three-year stretch—and when I say rough, just imagine the worst. Yet he was doing well spiritually and emotionally. I asked him since God promises to bring good out of what causes us grief, what good had he seen in his Job-like experience. Without hesitation, he said his challenges had brought him closer to the Lord and had driven him to God’s Word, which he now loves passionately. He spoke of a new commitment to Christian community and closeness with brothers and sisters in Christ like never before. He shared about all that his journey through difficulties taught him, including the realization that the loss of his six-figure salary had no effect whatsoever on God’s track record of providing for his daily bread. In this most difficult journey, he had discovered “the wisdom that is from above,” as James 3:17 calls it—and nothing he had previously held dear could come close to that!
That man had found true wisdom, which God’s Word says is more precious than rubies, and nothing we desire can compare with her.
In our culture, we so easily get caught up in the chase for the temporal—fame, fortune, pleasure, and possessions. If that might be the case for you, I would challenge you to read Proverbs 3:13-20 and let the Word of God recalibrate your instruments, or at some point, you will come in for a really rough landing.
Let this proverb, and the two verses that precede it, remind you: “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.” (Prov 3:13-14)
No, you can’t take fame and fortune, pleasure and possessions with you when you leave this life, but you can take your experience of knowing God and internalizing the wisdom that comes from him, then living what you know and what you’ve embraced in your moment-by-moment life on earth!
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