Luke 12: 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
The parable of the rich fool explains what I mean by 'seduction of success'. The ground of this man yielded so much harvest to a point where he contemplated where to store the harvest. That's normal for any man that experiences a boom. However, the disposition of his heart is where he missed it. In verses 18&19, he said: "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry".
His life's security was in material prosperity alone not in God. In verse 20, God said: "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided"? How did he get to this point where his success in farming made a fool of him? When he was toiling and praying to be successful, why didn't God call him a fool? In my opinion, he was seduced by the traps that beset successful people. He felt he had arrived and that was his undoing.
Some persons stopped praying, fasting, studying the bible and their devotional life went on the downward spiral after they achieved little success. They stopped doing the very things they did that got them to the top. On getting to the top, they just couldn't manage success. For some ministers of the gospel, they fell into the trap of over compensation. They over compensate themselves with exhorbitant material things under the guise of having suffered for the ministry in the past without being seen. We all need to learn how to manage success so that we won't end like the rich fool. The time to be more humble, more prayerful and closer to God is when our ground yields a bountiful harvest. Beware of the seductions that come with success.
Father, I receive the grace not to fall for the seductions that comes with success in Jesus name.