Taking a look around me, I see things are not really much different today than they were when I was a kid, or for that matter, when Moses was a kid.  The bottom line is, people are seeking after what they perceive they need or want.  Most everyone has a desire to be rich.  So let’s define “rich”.  In a sense, being rich is having no needs, because no matter what it is you need, you have or can get.  Of course, my definition of a “need” may be different than yours, and that’s OK.  And, just to make it interesting, I must also say there is a difference between “needs” and “wants”.  This is where we start seeing the individuality of people. 
I remember years ago needing another Mercedes.  Notice, I said it was a “need”.  You might say it was a “want”.  See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.  In my eyes, another Mercedes was just as much a “need” as your “need” for a vacation home, or a bass boat, or whatever it is you “need”.  We so often deceive ourselves concerning the difference between “need” and “want.  So we just kind of roll them into one, and before long, it’s no longer, “I want so-and-so,” but rather, “I need so-and-so.” 
When that happens, something primal deep inside us, that “survival mode”, kicks in, and we do whatever it takes to get that “need” met.  Thus, credit card debt entered the picture.  Hello?  Anybody home? 
Before I got saved, I had a lot of “needs” in my life.  And they didn’t all go away just because I got saved.  It took some time on my part to learn to distinguish rightly between “needs” and “wants”.  It took even more time on my part to start forcing myself to “need” less.  After working on the “needs”, it became necessary to work on the “wants”.  My most important “need” in 1993 was salvation, only I didn’t see it that way.  I was lost and headed for hell and to top that off, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so I also needed healing.  Those needs soon eclipsed my need for another Mercedes.  God was helping me get my priorities straight.  Notice I said He was “helping me”.  He had been trying to help me for years, only I wasn’t having any….Did cancer “help” me?  Oh yes, most definitely, however, I wouldn’t recommend it to you. 
There are easier ways for God to get your attention, but I was a hard head, like many others (hint, hint!) and hard heads require a big stick.  There is a story of an Ozark farmer who was showing his city friend around his farm.  The farmer invited his friend out to the barn and hooked his prize mule up to a plow for a demonstration.  At that point, the farmer picked up a piece of 2×4 lumber and whacked the mule across the head with it real hard and said, This is a good mule, and he can do a lot of work, BUT YOU HAVE TO GET HIS ATTENTION FIRST!
Needless to say, God finally got my attention.  Maybe you have things going on in your life right now that God is trying to get your attention about.  Maybe He is trying to get your eyes off your “wants” and onto your “needs”, perhaps?  You see, Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  That means, He means to take care of all your needs.  And if your needs are met, then you are rich indeed!
Through the years I find my needs are being redefined.  I have a roof over my head, food in my belly, and clothes on my back, and my health is perfect.  My needs actually are few.  I have a good wife, which is a “want”, as well as transportation other than my feet, and some good friends.  So, considering this, by all standards, I’m rich!
It is written in 2 Corinthians 8:9, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.
What can we see in that verse?  It says Jesus was rich.  That means ALL His needs were met, bar none. He was living in the perfect center of God’s will.  What can we find in the scriptures he lacked?  He had a home, yet later He said He had nowhere to lay His head.  Maybe He gave his home away, we don’t know, because it doesn’t say. But it sounds like something Jesus would do.  He always had food.  If there wasn’t enough food, He made it more than enough by multiplying it and giving it to others.  Judas carried the money bag, and though Judas was a thief, there was always enough money left over to give to the poor.  Jesus had so much health that He healed the sick with the excess.  And multitudes followed Him, desiring to be with Him.  But for our sakes, he became poor.  So what is poor?  That means He willingly gave up having His needs met, that He might focus on meeting OUR needs.  Of course, nobody asks Jesus to do anything for them, so He doesn’t have much to do these days, right? 
Yet, I know not everyone is “rich”.  Some lack a proper place to live, others have health problems, marital troubles, no job, you name it,   And some of these things are genuine “needs”, and not just “wants”.  God would have you provided for, if He is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.  Nothing has changed.  People still have “needs”, and God is still telling us, through Matthew 6:33, how to have those needs met.  Why don’t we get it?  Maybe we’re a little bit like me, or that Ozark mule, you know, a little stubborn?? Hello??   We’re still trying to do it “our way.  Sometimes we even try to coerce God into doing things for us by reminding Him of His promises, and confessing the Word, in an effort to get it “our way”.  Why isn’t it working, huh?  Is God reaching for His 2×4??
There is no question in my mind that God wants us to all be rich.  Before you think I’ve slid into the ditch, go back to Genesis and see how God set things up for Adam and Eve. They were placed in the Garden of Eden, all their food was provided, and you can imagine how beautiful it was and how nice all those flowers must have smelled.  God even showed them where the gold was, before there was ever a place to spend it.  There was no such thing as “need” for them in the beginning.  Then greed reared its ugly head.   It wasn’t God who brought poverty and need into the world, but rather Satan, who introduced greed to mankind. And the devil makes sure you’ll get all the greed you want.
 Get rid of your greed, and God will take care of your need.

  Take a long, hard, honest look at your list of “needs”.  If they are not being met, then it’s clear that something is amiss, either the “need” is not a “need” in God’s eyes, or we are not meeting the condition of “seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness”.  Matthew 6:31-33 clearly defines what God perceives as our needs, along with His promise of provision.  That’s not to say that God will not grant us many of our “wants”, but we need to make sure His conditions are met.  We can remind God of His promises, confess the Word a zillion times a day, and rebuke the devil until our rebuker wears out, and still not have our needs met if we are not meeting His conditions.
So in closing I ask again, WHO AMONG YOU IS RICH?  According to the scripture, the answer has to be, he or she who is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness!  And God will take care of the details.  Don’t worry, be happy!   God has a good plan for you!