699 Where is Your Hope? - 1 Timothy 6:17

Practically on a daily basis, how do you solve your problems? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. Sometimes I think certain passages of scripture, you get to listen to God talk to me. , this is one of those passages. Today. I want to talk about 1st Timothy 6:17. "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy." that's from the English Standard Version.

Often I wonder about my own motives and my own thoughts. I default to solving every problem that I face with my own resources, my own time, my own energy, or my own money. Do you? He says here, asked for the rich in this present age because, in the day when Paul was writing this, there were many people who didn't have the money to solve their problems. And many of the people listening to this podcast may not have all the money they need. I don't have all the money that I need.

However, most of us in the United States, especially our wealthy by the world standards. And especially by the standards of the day when Paul was writing to Timothy. And often I think what we do is we look for resources to solve our problems, instead of looking for God to solve them. He tells us here to focus on not the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

At the risk of bordering on a political conversation. I think sometimes we expect the government to solve our problems. We expect someone else to solve our problems. How many times have you heard someone say they should do X? Often we have somebody else that we want to blame for solving problems, or we want to put in charge of solving problems, or if it's our problem to solve, then we default to our resources.

We will throw anything at a problem, but God. And so, and I say that a little bit loosely, but my point is I want to put God in between me and my problems. God, how can I turn to you and listen to you better? I think our challenge here is to focus on who God is because he richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

We can focus on turning to him instead of our own resources. And he becomes the source and the object of our hope. He becomes where we hope. If my hope is in God, then I'm looking for his answer to our solutions. Today, the answer may not be ready to come. The answer may not be for today. It may be for another day.

And so I want to learn to train myself to turn to God who richly provides me and you with everything to enjoy. So I want to charge us today as Christ followers. Let's not be proud. Let's not set ourselves in the center of the universe and set our hopes on the uncertainty of our resources, our money, and our energy, and our time.

Let's instead turn to God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. How that shows up in your workplace today, maybe you need to trust God and stay late and do something that you know you need to do. Maybe you need to trust God and do a great job at what you're doing and not cut corners.

As we trust God to solve our problems and to be the hope that we focus on, he will call us to live differently. And that living differently will bring him glory. Not us. It will challenge the people around us to wonder why we're different, but then they might ask. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thanks for considering how we can engage our faith on a daily basis.

What we do because we follow Jesus matters. And your actions by turning to God to solve problems and to ritually provide for you is one of the ways where we make him visible in the world. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. If you're interested in joining a community of people who are passionate about trying to live their faith on a daily basis, check us out at https://community.Followerofone.org.

Thanks very much.