Back in 1983, a 92-year-old woman named Margaret Siders died. Since her husband’s death six years earlier, she had lived alone in a small, tin house. Because no one had agreed to pay for her burial, her body was being kept at a local morgue. During the last twenty years of her life, she was often seen in the downtown area of Shreveport, Louisiana. Everywhere she went, she pulled a little wagon behind her so that she could collect bits of food and old clothing from dirty trash cans.
What a sad story! Here was a woman living in poverty and loneliness. Her husband was gone, and apparently she didn’t have a friend in the world. The only time she was seen smiling was when she found something in a trash can that she could eat or something that she could wear. She didn’t even have anyone who would mourn her death. What an awful picture her life leaves in our minds, as she pulls her wagon from trash can to trash can and then goes home to her rundown house. Pause for a moment and think about the story of Margaret Siders’ life. How does it make you feel as you think about her loneliness, her poverty, and her death?
Actually, though, there’s a shocking part of her story. When the police entered her home to look for information about her next of kin, they made an amazing discovery. Police Detective Bettye Brookings had been watching Mrs. Siders. She had a hunch that this woman possessed more than she appeared to have. The detective led the group as they went from room to room searching the woman’s rundown shack. In the bedroom they discovered something that stunned them all! Detective Brookings reached inside a hole that had been cut in a mattress and pulled out some bank books. The “wagon lady” had about $250,000 in four local banks, and possibly even more in another account.
Have your feelings about Margaret Siders changed? We are amazed that someone would live in dreary poverty that didn’t have to. Unfortunately, in another way, a lot of us may be doing the same thing. Many people live like they are in a kind of emotional poverty when they don’t have to live like that.
By emotional poverty I mean living with things like fear, anxiety, worry, and discouragement. Jesus, on the other hand, said that He offers an abundant life (John 10:10) that is free from worry (Matthew 6:31-34). Wouldn’t you love to live every day with no fear or worry?
The Bible makes it very clear that Christ’s followers already have a wealth of peace and joy that has been deposited into their account. Notice how Paul prays that the Christians of his day would access the spiritual riches that God had already given to them: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19).
Notice that those spiritual riches are only available to the ones who have put their faith in Christ and what He did to pay off our sin debt. In Christ, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (sins), according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:7-8). By the way, I am really glad that Jesus is not stingy with His forgiveness! After all I have done to offend an awesome and holy God, I need a lot of forgiveness, and I need God to give it to me freely. Without Christ I am dead in sins (Ephesians 2:1), but with Christ I am “made alive” (Ephesians 2:5-9).
If you have given your life to Christ as your Savior, are you enjoying your spiritual riches of peace and joy? Do you live an abundant life in light of what Christ has given you, or does your dreary attitude lead others to believe that Christ has left you in spiritual poverty?
Every week at Bethel Chapel Church we are learning about the spiritual riches we have in Christ and how we can use them to live a life that is ruled by peace and joy instead of fear and worry. We would love to have you join us every Sunday for our Bible Training hour at 10:00 am and our worship time at 11:00 am. It would be my pleasure to get meet you personally.
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