Proverbs 19:22
What a person desires is unfailing loveb];
better to be poor than a liar.
It is better to have a poor friend who shows steadfast love through all circumstances than to have wealthy friends who are false. It is better to be a person who shows such love than to attain wealth and friends through deception. Money cannot compare in value to friendship, and friendship is only as valuable as the steadfast love that bonds it.
But understand that what matters is what God desires to see in a person. It is God who desires to see steadfast love. He could care less for the wealth a person has; he values highly the love a person possesses. He detests a liar. Offer to God your wealth; but that wealth should spring out of your steadfast love.
And understand that God values what he possesses. He values steadfast love, for he supremely holds such a trait.
“The steadfast love of God endures all the day” (Psalm 52:1)
“Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good” (Psalm 69:16).
“It is good…to declare your steadfast love in the morning” (Psalm 92:2).
“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 106:1).
And how has his supremely demonstrated such love? “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Revelation 7
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
The Great Multitude in White Robes
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:
“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
14 I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 ‘Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’a]
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’b]
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’c]”