Imagine that you have just won the lottery. . .the biggest one ever! It was so large that they don’t expect that it will ever be matched in any lifetime. It was also exempt from taxes of any sort, so the money is all yours (this aspect may take the most amount of imagination to think about no taxes from government. . .but I digress).
Every dream you ever had can be fulfilled because the money is almost limitless the lottery was so large. It eclipsed the GDP of most countries in the world, the amount was so large.
Of course, everyone wants to be your friend. Long lost relatives are suddenly coming out of the woodwork. Your boss has just become the best person to you ever instead of the jerk he’d always been to you before. Investors are calling you so often seeking seed money that you stop answering your phone or the door to your home.
Your social media accounts have become the hottest commodity for connection. Your posts haven’t gone viral. . .YOU have!
Everyone has a reason to connect with you.
Except one thing. . .you are so overwhelmed that you never access the money.
You are not reckless. You do not blow it all in a year. In fact, you do not touch it at all.
You keep going to work, barely paying your bills, driving a car that limps along with bald tires. Your clothes are worn out. Your house is falling apart from all the repairs that you haven’t been able to cover.
As time goes on, you default on your loans because you are so overwhelmed by everything that you get further and further behind on your payments that you finally can’t make it. The bank sadly, knowing who you are and what kind of money you have, foreclose on your home. Your car is repossessed because you haven’t paid that either.
People that know you simply can’t understand why you’re responding the way you are. You are the richest man on earth but you are not touching a dime of the money.
Eventually, you end up homeless living under a bridge. You lose your job because you haven’t had a way to get to work. Now you survive by begging for what you need, all while possessing wealth beyond imagination.
Who would ever let this happen?
Well. . . as absurd as it sounds, many of us do something very similar spiritually.
Each of us won the lottery. God has offered us something infinitely greater than money. He gave us His Son.
Jesus Christ came into the world, lived among us, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again so that we could be forgiven, reconciled to God, and brought into His Kingdom. In Him, we are offered mercy, peace, purpose, hope, eternal life, and a restored relationship with the One who made us.
Yet many people live as though none of that is available.
They carry guilt they do not have to carry. They live without peace God offers. They search for meaning while ignoring the One who gives it. They live spiritually bankrupt while the riches of God’s grace stand open before them.
Most important of all, God is not simply offering blessings. He is offering Himself.
He wants a relationship with you. He is not interested in what you can give Him. He wants you. He wants to restore you to what you were created for: life with Him.
And the response is not complicated. Come to Him. Trust Him. Say yes to Him.
So, you won the lottery.
The question is: will you live like it?
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