When You Lose Everything, You Still Have All You Need By Rick Warren
“Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke 12:15 (NLT)
After a total loss, you have to reevaluate and refocus your life.
Disasters have a way of changing our direction, challenging our perspective, and redefining our values. In a disaster, we realize what matters most and what doesn’t really matter at all.
If you measure your life by how many possessions you have and your happiness depends on the things you’ve collected, then you’ve set yourself up for disappointment—because you could lose it all in a snap!
You are more valuable than your valuables. You are worth more than your net worth. Your possessions do not determine your purpose in life.
If your idea of home is a place—a house or a high-rise apartment or a gated community—and suddenly, it’s flooded or destroyed or taken from you, then it forces you to redefine what home really is. Home is not about a place. Home is about your relationships. Home is family.
God has a purpose for our lives, and that’s what gives us significance. Our significance doesn’t come from success, salary, or status but in serving God and others.
Jesus said, “Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15 NLT). Don’t ever confuse what you live on with what you live for.
So how do you have security in a world where everything is temporary? The only way you’ll ever have security in this life is to put your faith and trust in something that cannot be taken away from you.
Can you lose your career? Oh, yes! Can you lose your bank account and your portfolio and your retirement investments? At any time. Can you lose your youthful beauty? Of course.
There’s only one thing that cannot be taken from you: your relationship to Jesus Christ. You cannot lose him because he has promised to never let go of you. When everything is lost, you can trust that he is still in control. His character will not change, and how he feels about you will never change.
The only firm foundation in a world that constantly changes is to build your security, your trust, your hope—your life—on Jesus. Then, when disaster hits, you’ll still have everything you need.
For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!
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