The rich are vulnerable

Let's talk about verse 9. My paraphrase said "People who want to get rich are vulnerable." What the NIV says is "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." (TM)

It's like you open your heart up in a dangerous way when you want to be rich. There are other examples of this same thing.

Imagine a boy who wants to be regarded by his peers as brave or daring, he thinks that will solve all his problems, and so he decides that he will attempt something very dangerous, like maybe jumping his bike over a ditch filled with broken concrete, pieces of rebar sticking up into the sky.

Imagine a young, single mother with a new boy friend, and she thinks that he completes her, that this relationship with him will solve all her problems and make her feel appreciated, but he doesn't really like the children, and he's about to walk because of them. So she does something awful to the children, because they're in the way of the thing that will fix her life. That one's been in the news.

Imagine a young man who believes that having plenty of money will fix all his problems, make his life more exciting, and cause people to respect him in a new way, so he lays aside all conviction and does anything it takes to make it: he ignores his family, he betrays friends, he does things that are dishonest, anything to make the dollars.

All of these examples show a vulnerability that occurs when we decide to really go for it, placing our trust in something other than God. A quick search through the NIV for "our trust" yields interesting results. Six of eight verses directly support this thought. One shows the opposite (placing trust in false gods results in shame). One (the one from Titus) is talking about something else.

Psalm 62:8 (TM) is my favorite. "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."