Fringe Benefits

I am blessed to have a job with great fringe benefits. I earn sick pay and vacation pay ever 2 weeks and my sick pay is unlimited and has no cap. I have great health insurance that is very inexpensive. I have a pension plan and a deferred compensation plan. I get 14 paid holidays a year and my employer provides basic life insurance. For the most part I have every weekend off and only on a rare occasion do I get called in to work a night or weekend. According to the website census.gov about 86% of U.S. private-sector employees worked for establishments that offered employer-sponsored health insurance. Even if you have a job that provides for you great pay and benefits it is all only temporary. 

Matthew 6:19-21 ESV Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

In general, “treasures on earth” includes money and possessions. Earthly treasures include the things you can touch, cash, clothes, cars. Money, money, money. You think about money. You work for money. You save money. You spend money. Hopefully you tithe your money. Finally most of us at some point in our life you will stress over money. Even if money isn’t a controlling factor in your life,.. something that your life revolves around,,,, a significant portion of your life will revolve around earning, saving, giving, and spending money. So your relationship with money isn’t something you can just brush aside as not spiritual or unnecessary. Here’s something you need to know about money. Bible verses or not, money is amoral. Money doesn’t have a life. It cannot act on its own. It cannot do good deeds, and it cannot commit crimes. Basically, it’s neither good or bad. No matter how many Bible verses about money there is. Money can only do what you tell it to do. Money is not the root of all evil. But the love of money is the root of all evil.

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 

Now, before you jump to the wrong conclusion, Jesus didn’t say that …You can’t own a phone. You can’t buy a computer. You can’t purchase a home. You can’t drive a car. You can’t buy gifts for someone. You can’t save or invest money for retirement. You can’t buy more than one shirt or a pair of jeans. What Jesus did say was, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Said another way, stop focusing on accumulating money and things and set your heart on pursuing, treasures in heaven. Real wealth is obtained by investing in, treasures in heaven. You are eternally rewarded when, you give. When you pray and fast in private. When you forgive someone. When you share the gospel. When you love your enemies. When you endure insults and persecutions. When it comes to rewards, the greatest reward every follower of Christ will receive is seeing God face to face.

1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

I may not know what the future holds for me, but I know who holds the future! As a faithful Christian servant our future is in the hands of the one who has planned the future!