Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Deuteronomy 28:47-48

All throughout the Old and New Covenant, poverty is a part of the curse.  It is said, it doesn’t take much time of the hunger of famine to humble a man.  The same is true of poverty.

Christ’s Kingdom, Paul writes, consists of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).  When Paul wrote of not muzzling the ox that is treading out the grain, he said that the reason was that the plowman should plow in hope (1 Corinthians 9:10).

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But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Luke 10:42

Jesus told the disciples, concerning Mary, that only one thing was needful, or needed.  This one thing, sitting at His feet, listening to His words in humility, is all that was necessary.  This could be likened to the mustard seed, the simple seed of faith, willingness to hear His voice, as it says in the Proverbs, “Wisdom cries aloud in the street” (Proverbs 1:20).

But, let us consider another time in Jesus’ life, when there was something that seemed vital, but proved not necessary. Read more…