Riches.

"Money has never yet made anyone rich."

-Seneca

"I don't understand why so many folks seem to want to die rich."

-Frank A. Clark

"Money often costs too much."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of his life."

-Billy Graham

"Some who are poor pretend to be rich; others who are rich pretend to be poor."

-Proverbs 13:7 NLT

"There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches."

-Proverbs 13:7 NKJV

For many years, Hetty Green (1834-1916) was called America's greatest miser. Unfortunately, at the time of her death, Hetty was also known as "the Witch of Wall Street." Her estate was valued at $100 million, an exceptionally vast fortune for that day in 1916. Hetty inherited $6 million dollars from her father and accumulated the rest of her fortune by a number of investments in the stock market.

Despite her wealth Hetty was, without a doubt, one of the poorest people living in New York City at the time. She wore the same dress for years and her undergarments consisted of used newspapers from the trash containers in Central Park. She ate cold oatmeal to save the expense of heating water. When her son Edward had a severe leg injury Hetty took so long trying to find a free clinic that his leg had to be amputated because of advanced infection. It has been said that she hastened her own death by bringing on a stroke while arguing the merits of skim millk because it was cheaper than whole milk!

Here is a woman who had it all, or could have. After all, $100 million! That doesn't sound like the budget for cold oatmeal, newspaper underwear, free clinics, and skim milk to me! Hetty definitely had the wealth . . . or did she, really? How could that have happened? What made such a wealthy woman so poor?

Hetty loved her wealth. We know that loving money leads to nothing but troubles. "For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). She didn't control her money, it controlled her! She didn't have millions of dollars, millions of dollars had her. She wasn't the master of her money she was in bondage to it! She died in poverty but left incredible wealth behind. What a tragedy!

Most of us, if any, will not have the problem of wealth dogging our footsteps in this lifetime. Oh, we'd like to give $100 million a try but . . . fat chance! It just ain't gonna happen. I'd be happy giving the $6 million a try. That won't happen either. But . . . in Jesus we can be rich, even if by the world's standards we're poor.

Wealth isn't measured by what we keep but by what we give away. Wealth does not produce happiness either. God probably laughs at the Hetty Greens of this world and says, "Do you want to be poor? Keep it all. You want to be rich? Give it all away!"

No matter how much money we have we must always be asking ourselves, "Am I a giver or a taker? In God's eyes, am I wealthy or poor? Am I spending money now or investing in eternity? Am I ready to take what I've got, give it away, and trust God with the outcome?"