Solomon hits the nail on the head once again in our Eccleisates when it comes to man’s love of money and being under the illusion that somehow money equates to happiness:

Ecc 5:10  He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.

About 5 years ago, Time Magazine did an article where they surveyed people who won the lottery, Jack Whittaker a won the West Virginia lottery in 2002, only to have both his daughter and granddaughter both die of drug overdoses.  Whittaker said, my wife wishes we had torn that winning ticket up.  

Sandra Hayes won the Missouri lottery in 2006 and split a $224 million Powerball with a dozen coworkers. The St. Louis woman is now a retired social worker and wrote the book, How Winning the Lottery Changed My Life.   Hayes said the new wealthy lifestyle changed how she saw her closest family and friends. “I had to endure the greed and the need that people have, trying to get you to release your money to them,” she said in 2012. “That caused a lot of emotional pain. These are people who you’ve loved deep down, and they’re turning into vampires trying to suck the life out of me.”

Even people whom we know personally who may have big houses, and other worldly assets, are more often not, not happy.  Why?  Because money becomes their god.  

Jesus also speaks on this when he tells us: “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.  Matthew 6:25

This also points to the reality that money and wealth fade over time, but God’s Kingdom is forever.  Let us not get caught up in the material things of the world, even though they are constantly being dangled in front of us, but remember that they wither and fade over time and are vain and meaningless idols, on the other hand, Christ is eternal.