Wealth and Happiness

● Commonly, people think that if they accumulate wealth they will be happy. But time and again this has proved to be a fallacy. A Hollywood actress recently explained:

“I’ve had my taste of wealth and all the material things. They don’t mean a thing. There’s a psychiatrist that goes with every swimming pool out here, not to mention divorces and children who hate their parents.”​—New York Sunday News, Nov. 28, 1976.

Wealth alone will never bring happiness. Something else is required. Long ago a wise man identified this as “godly devotion along with self-sufficiency.” The man noted further, his words being recorded in the Bible:

“For we have brought nothing into the world, and neither can we carry anything out. So, having sustenance and covering, we shall be content with these things. However, those who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and hurtful desires, which plunge men into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things, and by reaching out for this love some have been led astray from the faith and have stabbed themselves all over with many pains.”​—1 Tim. 6:6-10.