Study Guide Ascending the Heights Step 16 &17

1) Do not lay up for yourself, treasures on earthBut lay up for yourself treasures in HeavenFor where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21) 2) Are you living for Heaven or for all that is here on this Earth ? 3) Avarice: insatiable greed for riches; inordinate, miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth. 4) St. John states that: Avarice is a worship of idols and the offspring of unbelief. 5) The author of Ascending The Heights asks the question: Do we believe in God or do we believe in your financial planner? 6) There is a danger of replacing material wants with what we really need. Sometimes we allow money to be our God. i) The man who conquers this vice (Avarice), has cut out care. But the man trapped by it can never pray to God. ii) Avarice causes hatred, theft, envy separations, hostility, stormy blasts, remembrance of past wrongs, inhuman acts and even murder. It can do this because we allow it to get between us and God. 7) Wealth is not bad, it is not incompatible with a spiritual life. But it does make it more difficult. The man who has tasted the things of heaven easily thinks of nothing of what is below. But he who has no taste of heaven finds pleasure in possessions. 8) How do we fight avarice? a) We can find wisdom in Proverbs 30:8,9 Give me neither poverty nor richesFeed me with the food allotted to me. Lest I be full and deny You. And say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God. 9) Ask yourself what is enough? How much do I need? What am I doing for others? 10) Look at your income to spending ratio. i) Do you live in a manner that the more I make the more I spend or the more I make the more I can help the less fortunate 11) Poverty is relative-But it is better to look at what we need (food, clothes, shelter ) and then strive to reduce the number of obligations that are wants not needs.