To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

We’ve all heard the expression “He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” It means to be born into privilege or wealth.  Think the royal family of England, or the Kennedys here in the USA.  So often people that aren’t so privileged long for the benefits of such a life.  That’s why the lottery is so popular.  People spend their hard-earned cash on the far-off hope that they might win millions so that everything in their life might change. No longer would they have to watch the yachts launch out from the marinas at the beach, for now they could own one!  And yet, for all that wishful dreaming, so often we forget that any worldly privilege or blessing is a very temporary thing.  If we just look around us and think a little bit we should realize that all that privilege is often accompanied by unhappiness and a longing for yet something more.  The rash of suicides of millionaire celebrities in recent years is evidence of this. 

The Bible speaks to us of a better way, in fact an infinitely better way.  It’s a way that isn’t limited to those born to privilege in this life, for it’s so often just the opposite.  It is to those that are not wise according to worldly standards, or powerful in this world’s parlance, or of noble birth.  It often includes the physically handicapped, the mentally disabled, the wheelchair bound.  It’s a way that is open to the poorest of the poor, the slave, the oppressed, and the abused.  It’s the way of the cross.  It’s the way of death to what our life was and new birth into a supernatural nobility.  In Christ we become “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).  In Christ, we become joint-heirs with Him (Romans 8:17).  In a moment, when a person is born again, everything is made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Not only is his or her very character changed, but the believer’s possessions are suddenly changed.  The Christian is given a new life – eternal, a new hope – that never fades away, a new peace – that is the very inner peace of the Savior, new wisdom – as the awesome knowledge of God is revealed to them in the pages of the Bible with the ever-present guidance of the Holy Spirit which now lives within them, and a new power – power to face anything that comes at them in this life as they trust the God whose eyes are always on them and whose presence is constantly with them. 

Born to privilege: something that very, very few will ever experience in terms of how the world views this term, but possible supernaturally for all who will believe. 

So, what would you rather have, the temporary wealth of those “born with a silver spoon in their mouth” or the eternal riches of the child of God.   If you’re conflicted about this, though the choice seems so obvious, read Luke 16:19-31.  It’s the story of a rich man, who for the short time of his life on earth “was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day,” and Lazarus, who, in this life, was “covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.”  But from the time of the rich man’s death over 2,000 years ago until this present moment he has been in Hades where he has been and forever will be “in torment” and “in anguish in this flame.”  All the while Lazarus has been dwelling “in comfort” and the joy of his Lord. 

Born to privilege?  You can be, by being born of the Spirit, and by this new birth possessing all the eternal privileges that mark the lives of the children of God.