Whether we are rich or poor according to society, living in wealth or suffering in poverty, we all have riches. The blessings God gives us while on this earth are innumerable. Yet the ones we have in this life are not all we have. We have others waiting for us, waiting in heaven. We also have blessings that are not of this world, yet also help us in this world. Ex: The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It’s a blessing we have to enlighten hope in the life to come, that we may receive that crown of life as James mentions in James 1:12. The blessings we have in this life are to be enjoyed and appreciated but not a priority in which we focus all of our time on. One of Satan’s many plots to draw people away from God is to use the physical objects of this world. Why? Because they’re visible, we can see them and touch them. But we must remain strong in that temptation, because a reward coming will be greater than any invention this world can come up with.

The blessings we have on this earth come from a source. That source, Almighty God. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” If we realize the source of our riches, it will help us greatly appreciate God and all that he has done for us. If you look at the title of this article it’s called “True Riches”. What are ‘True Riches’? Well, there are two types of blessings, the physical and the spiritual. Romans 15:27 speaks of these two, along with 1 Corinthians 9:11. The true riches we are given are that of the spiritual ones. Now i’m not saying that the physical blessings are not important. We need food, water, shelter, etc to survive. But the true blessings we have are in Christ (Ephesians 1:3 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.) What are these spiritual, immortal blessings? I will tell you that I cannot list them all because they are just as numerous as the physical. But we will discuss a few of them.

Let’s begin with the Sacrifice of Christ. That perfect sacrifice of a lamb means so much more than just a dead man on a tree and the forgiveness of sins. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” With Jesus dying and raised again back to life, he gives us hope. A hope of eternal life with him. But how? With the shedding of Jesus’ blood, he cleanses and forgives us of our sins (1 John 1:7). And before if we sinned and did not repent we were not saved. But now we are saved and forgiven and since we are cleansed we will have eternal life, as long as we live a life devoted to him. Jesus is now the only way to the Father John 14:6 says, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Without that sacrifice we would never have eternal life.

The mercy and grace of God are also wonderful and beautiful blessing we have received. Often the definition of these two words are confused. To generally summarize, Mercy- God not punishing us for our sins as they deserve, Grace- God blessing us when we don’t deserve it. These often go hand in hand and in fact, Christ’s sacrifice was an act of both of these. We deserve death for our sins, but now through Christ we will not get punished, and Christ was a gift to us. That is why Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” We were saved by grace and it was a gift of God.

The blessings we have discussed so far are all spiritual. We cannot see, hear, touch, taste, or smell them. But we know they exist because we have faith that they do. Without them we have no hope of eternal life. There are many more that we haven’t discussed and we don’t have enough time in the world to discuss them. But we need to realize which ones are important and which ones we don’t give much thought to. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says we need to focus on what is unseen not on what is seen. Therefore focus on what is spiritual not physical. 1 John 2:15-17 states, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” The things of this world are temporal they won’t be here long, but the spiritual blessings will last for an eternity, so our focus must be on them (Colossians 3:2) because even our home is spiritual.

If we have a lot of physical blessings, we must also give them. Luke 12:48 says, “…From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” We must give to others just as God has given us everything. Let others enjoy the things you have. According to Solomon, everything is meaningless, meaning that the physical will pass but the spiritual is there to stay.

Just remember Matthew 6:20-21, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”