DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 9 July 2025: Vain Riches
Text: Psalm 30:1-8 (KJV)
I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried out to You,
And You healed me.
3 O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
4 Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
5 For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.
6 Now in my prosperity I said,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
8 I cried out to You, O Lord;
And to the Lord I made supplication:
KEY VERSE: (Psalm 30:6) And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
There is a story about a young man from a low-income family who made a lot of money later in life. He purchased a gold-plated Rolls Royce. He was proud of it but kept it in the garage and didn’t drive it anywhere. When he died, he left word in his will that he wanted to be buried in the Rolls Royce. When his friends and relatives came to the funeral, they saw him embalmed, sitting behind the wheel of his shiny car. After the funeral was over, the workers at the graveyard began to lower the dead man propped up behind the wheel of his Rolls Royce into the grave. One of his friends standing by watching said, “Man, that’s living!” In reality, that is dying. He left it all behind.
In the passage for consideration today, King David is seen praising God for the mercy and deliverance He gave to him, especially healing him and saving him from death. While thanking God, he acknowledged what led to his pains and suffering. He, too, had become complacent and felt self-sufficient because of his success. His faith had shifted from God, as he now trusted his wealth and prosperity. God had to deflate his pride and dismantle the false security he had erected around himself. He quickly realised that his sufferings must have been because he shifted his confidence away from God. When he repented, God ended his suffering just as morning sunlight disperses the darkness of the night.
David’s experience teaches us the importance of managing our success and prosperity well. While success is something very desirable and God’s will for us, it can become dangerous and damning if we fail to manage it well. It can lead to complacency, arrogance, burnout, and stagnation, loss of purpose, failure and downfall. If nothing is done quickly to remedy it, it may lead to eventual backsliding and eternal damnation.
Christians must understand that our entire life and well-being revolve around God. We begin to sink once we shift our focus and attention away from Him and begin to trust in ourselves or other things in life. Nothing can salvage the situation until we return fully to God. No matter how deep we may have fallen and how dark the night we have strayed into, the Lord can turn everything around when we return to Him.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It is tragic when your success becomes the cause of your downfall.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 18-19
Daily Manna 9 July 2025
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