Dr. Ryan here.
Today I want to talk to you about is inheriting things bad?
There's a Bible verse that talks about inheritance.
It says, Proverbs 19, 14, houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent
wife is from the Lord.
Two things happening in the scripture.
First of all, houses and wealth are inherited from parents.
There's a lot of different ideas about inheritance.
Is it wise to take the hard-earned accumulated wealth from parents and distribute it to sons,
daughters, offspring, family members?
Well, the reality is there's no clear answer.
What we do know is that God teaches us that we're stewards of every single thing in our
lives.
So, if you're given an inheritance in your life, something that you didn't earn, but
that a family member earned and then they had given it into your care, the wisest thing
that you can do is to understand that we don't own anything in our life.
We are simply managers for the time that it's under our care.
So right now I'm 48, I have a home, I have a few other things, not much.
Now, while these things are under my care, I'm responsible for them.
Someday my house will go to my family.
Everything that I have will go to my family.
Now that's just your physical assets, but let's talk about the other assets that you
have.
Let's talk about your relationships.
Let's talk about your marriage.
Let's talk about your family.
Let's talk about your friendships.
Let's talk about the influence that you can have if you're good at a sport or you're good
at an activity or if you have a lot of education.
All of these things we are stewards of.
We're just managers of.
A lot of times we get this wrong.
One of the ways that you know that you're a mature follower of Jesus is if you view
everything that you have in life, not as being yours, but just as being something that God
entrusted you to get to manage for a little while.
Just guess what, when we die and we go to be with the Lord, someone else is going to
manage the stuff that we have.
When you think about things in that light, you understand we don't really own anything.
We just get to be good stewards and good managers of it for a while.
Which brings us back to this verse.
If that's true, houses and wealth are inherited from parents, the question shouldn't be is
having an inheritance good or bad?
The question we should ask ourselves is this, am I a good steward of everything that God's
given me in my life?
All my relationships, of my education, of my experiences, of the calling of God upon
my life, of the things that I'm supposed to do to make a difference in this world.
If you're being a good steward of all of those things, then of course you would say, Lord,
give me more.
To whom much is given, much is required, and you're also able to make a bigger impact if
your focus is on God and you're having a godly focus with your life.
These things are good.
Then this verse pivots, it says, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
There's a juxtaposition happening, houses and wealth, it's one asset class, but a prudent
wife is from the Lord, a wise wife, a godly wife, a humble wife.
These are a gift from God.
Using the juxtaposition of this verse, this is actually more of a gift than an inheritance
from parents, and that's a powerful principle for us to understand in our life.
Well, thanks so much for joining me.
Until next time, I hope you have a beautiful day.