Who Eats at Your Table?

'Then he turned to his host. "When you put on a luncheon or a banquet," he said, "don't invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you."'~Luke 14:12-14

After I read this, I thought about all the dinners I have been invited to with people who were much more 'well to do' than myself. I was so uncomfortable and most of the people who were there seemed so unhappy. Talking bad about the person next to them and the looks of bitterness on their faces just astounded me! They never had to worry about paying the electric bill or keeping the grocery bill down to $100.00 or less. They drove fine cars and lived in fine houses. They wore nice clothes and seemed to have every material pleasure a person could obtain. I mean, I love to cook and do you KNOW what I would give to have a huge kitchen I could spend all my time in with an unlimited food budget?!
Then I thought about people like myself I had eaten simple meals with. The food was awesome, the people were wonderful and we all kicked back and enjoyed stories about the antics of our families. None of us had a lot of money and most of us had read every book ever published on budgeting and couponing!  We kept our older cars in good repair because that is how we got to work, and we all wore blue jeans and sweatshirts...unless it was a fancy shindig and then we wore our 'good jeans' and a dress shirt. I was so much more comfortable with those people! Birds of a feather, right?
Now, I know that there are those who have a lot of money and surround themselves with nice things who love the Lord, but the Bible says that it will be hard for the rich people to get to Heaven. Matthew 19:24 puts it like this:

 I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

 I have thought a lot about these two very different experiences and I discovered why I saw such a difference in them. For one crowd, the rich crowd, most of them depend on money to fix their problems, they don't know the desperation that makes others cry out to God. The other group doesn't have a lot, but they share what they DO have with others and they believe in God. Not the washed out version that we see everywhere, but the TRUE GOD, who loves us and wants to provide his children with every good thing! We depend on our CREATOR, our REFUGE IN TIMES OF TROUBLE, OUR FATHER!!!! We pray for help when the bills are a little steep or when we just don't see how we can eat for a week on the food in the cabinets. We depend on GOD to fix our problems and, as a result, we know that our help will never run out. Our Mercy & Grace account will never be over drawn, so our spirits are sweeter and our worries, while the world sees them as a heavy burden, are very light.   

"For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”~Matthew 11:30

I guess money rich might be nice and material things may be okay to have, but I think I would rather stay faith rich and have spiritual things any day. What about you?