I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance… – Philippians 4:12, Amplified Bible (AMP)

In a recent conversation, the following question came up:

Is it wrong to pursue riches to use for God’s glory AS WELL AS to use for personal comfort?

There is nothing wrong with desiring the comfort that comes with having our material needs and wants satisfied. As a matter of fact, God demonstrates His desire to provide us with such comfort throughout the Bible. For example, He placed Adam and Eve in a paradise of plenty, He made men like Abraham, Job, and Israel very rich, and Christ Himself encouraged us in Matthew 11:29 (AMP) to:

Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.

The “wrong” comes into the picture when we replace our pursuit of God’s will with our pursuit of comfort. When comfort – and the money that we believe can buy that comfort – become our idols, then we will find ourselves behaving in ways that absolutely will not please God. We may make purchases we cannot afford, placing ourselves in precarious debt situations. We may lie, cheat, or steal in order to make a quick buck. We may become slaves to slothfulness as we become addicted to the leisure that money can buy. We may obsess over how to make our next dollar rather than how to pursue our next work for God, and when that happens, our relationship with God suffers, and His outreach to others through us suffers as well.

Understand that there will be seasons of plenty and seasons of want in your life. The key to surviving both types of seasons, with the right character intact, is to realize that personal comfort is not the most important thing in life; a solid, rich, trusting relationship with God Almighty is. When pleasing God is the motivation behind everything you do, then you’ll be able to enjoy money – and the comfort it can buy – with the proper balance. You’ll also be able to endure those times of want with a patience that others will marvel at, giving you an open door to tell them about the God that enables you to persist when your human desire is to give up. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-13 (AMP):

11 Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.

12 I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.

13 I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

If we develop the kind of relationship with Christ that Paul had, then we will have little problem navigating both the times of plenty and the times of want in a godly manner. Christ greatly desires to have that kind of relationship with us. The only question is, do we?

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