Affluenza
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. – Proverbs 22:1.
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. – Proverbs 22:4.
With the technological computer revolution there have been a vast number of people catapulted into the realm of the rich. It seems the newly rich have a problem. Their riches seem to be adversely affecting their children. Their children are becoming spoiled brats or is that spelled “rich snobs”? It has become such a problem that there are people now helping the newly rich to deal with it. They even have a name for it: affluenza.
Actually affluenza has been around for a long time and it does not just infect millionaires and billionaires and affluenza does not just infect children. Moses warned the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:11-14: “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest – when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage… (v. 17) then you say in your heart, ‘My Power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'”
It is a problem for every generation. When the living is easy we tend to forget about God. We suddenly believe that all of the good things in our life are a result of our own efforts and we leave God out of the equation. True riches, true honor, and true life all come through humility before God. The apostle Peter tells us: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:5b-6).”
The writer of Proverbs was so very right when he said “The rich and poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all (Proverbs 22:2).” We must always remember our Creator and train up our children (Proverbs 22:6) in this knowledge so they won’t be infected with affluenza.
(When the living is easy we tend to forget about God.)