Open Heaven Daily Devotional 15 December 2021
Topic: Beware Of Profiteering
Memorise
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. – Proverbs 11:1
Read
Proverbs 11:1-4
11 A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.
2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
3 The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.
4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
Open Heaven Daily Devotional 15 December 2021 MESSAGE
Profiteering the act of making excessive and unfair profit usually through illegal means is considered as wickedness before God. Profiteering involves taking undue advantage of others. You may not know the havoc you are wreaking on humanity until God opens your eyes to see that both the services and goods you are charging exorbitantly for are not affordable by those who need them for survival. Many people profiteer because they want to make excessive profits and enrich themselves with worldly possessions. They have lost sight of Proverbs 13:11 which says: “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”
Proverbs 13:22 also says…the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. It is tantamount to slavery when people work for you and you deny them their wages or tactically delay their pay. God will punish such people because they have been unfaithful. James 5:4 says: “…the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”
The Scripture above expresses the mind of God about profiteering. Consider the lives of those who have gathered wealth illegally just to leave an inheritance for their children. In many cases, even in their lifetime, their children sell property bought with these looted funds to the children of those they have defrauded. We have heard the stories of children of labourers purchasing the property of their fathers masters when the Lord of Sabaoth caused wealth to change hands. Truly, the treasures of wickedness will never bring profit (Proverbs 10:2).
Beloved, remember the words of our Lord Jesus in Luke 12:15 and be wise. Wealth does not guarantee satisfaction, joy, peace and security. It is foolishness to run after wealth mindlessly. Godliness with contentment is what brings great gain (1 Timothy 6:6).
Prayer Point
Father, please deliver my soul from greed. Let me never chase after uncertain riches, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Bible in One Year
2 Peter 1:1-21, 2 Peter 2:1-22, 2 Peter 3:1-18
HYMN: Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All
1. Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all,
hear me, blest Savior, when I call;
hear me, and from thy dwelling place
pour down the riches of thy grace.
CHORUS
Jesus, my Lord, I thee adore;
O make me love thee more and more.
2. Jesus, too late I thee have sought;
how can I love thee as I ought?
And how extol thy matchless fame,
the glorious beauty of thy name?
3. Jesus, what didst thou find in me
that thou hast dealt so lovingly?
How great the joy that thou hast brought,
so far exceeding hope or thought!
4. Jesus, of thee shall be my song;
to thee my heart and soul belong;
all that I have or am is thine,
and thou, blest Savior, thou art mine.
