May 1, 2025 Devo

I think one of the more eye-opening experiences in my life was when I was in college in Houston, Texas. I got a job at the Downtown YMCA. It was a “Men’s Only” YMCA and served the businessmen who worked in the downtown area. Most of these men were incredibly successful. They were attorneys, bankers, investors, and oil company executives.
It was the first time in my life I had ever been around people with such means, and I was in awe of how they lived. They wore really nice clothes. They carried money clips with wads of cash. Their watches were worth twice as much as my car. They would brag about their boats, their motorcycles, and their weekend trips to Mexico. I felt as if I was living in the old TV series, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
But then I began to notice something. The sadness. Most of them drank heavily. Some of them took drugs. After they found out that I was studying for ministry, many of them would talk to me about their marriage problems, the problems with their kids, and sometimes just about the emptiness they felt. For a lot of them, when they weren’t chasing the “high,” they were really, really low. I remember one attorney sitting on a bench in the locker room and just staring. When I asked him if he was okay, he turned, looked at me, shook his head, and said, “Life is hell.” He had a neck full of gold chains. He had a $3000 Rolex watch on his arm. He drove a brand-new Mercedes. But he didn’t have Jesus. And life without Jesus IS hell. No matter how much you have.
Please hear my heart. It’s okay to have money. It’s okay to have nice things or live in a big house. But if you don’t have Jesus, you’re in poverty, no matter what you have. Thinking about my buddies back then reminded me of how Jesus described the Pharisees. “Beautiful caskets.” They trimmed their lives with the best of the best, but underneath all that stuff were dead men’s bones. Do YOU have Jesus? If you do, you’re already rich. Anything else you have is just gravy. If you don’t have Jesus, let go of what you have and find Him. Because what you do have or try to obtain will never be enough. That’s God’s Word for you today.