Suppose I offered you one of two envelopes. In one envelope was five dollars and in the second envelope was a million dollars. Which one would you choose? I suspect every one of us would choose the million dollars. You could do more with a million dollars, and the assumption underlying that is that there is more happiness in a million dollars. Suppose I offered you two other envelopes. In one envelope was a million dollars and in the other was happiness. Which of those two would you choose? That is a different question altogether, isn't it? In Ecclesiastes 5 a man who had more wealth than we can imagine said, "There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt." How can something that should bring happiness or security bring us harm?
Having possessions has the potential to bring us harm because of
unsatisfied ambition. Verse 10 says, "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity." The most miserable person possible is someone who no longer has an excuse to be miserable because he has everything he thought he wanted and is still unhappy.
Another possible harm of possessions is
unwanted neighbors. Verse 11 says, "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" Many a person with much has worried about whether his friends are true or whether they are just opportunists.
A third possible hurt is the
inability to sleep. Verse 12 says, "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Many people spend the first half of life worried about they don't have, and the second half of life worried about what they do have.
It is not wrong to have much. God may have provided much in your life, but the point is that
it is better to enjoy what you have than to have what you want, because contentment is ultimately found in God.
Prayer Requests:
-Meetings this week in Denver,PA; Yuma,AZ; and Kendallville,IN
-West Branch Men on the Move Conference, October 16-17- Ft. Collins, CO 
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