There is a well-known story about Sir Thomas Aquinas and his visit to the Vatican.

When he arrived in the Vatican, he was given the red carpet treatment.

He was shown some of the priceless treasures that very few people have ever seen in the Vatican.

St. Thomas Aquinas was absolutely bedazzled by this fabulous wealth, the enormity of the wealth

of the Vatican. And at the end of his visit, still bedazzled by what he had just seen, a senior

cardinal turned to him and said, you see, Thomas, the church can no longer say what Peter said

in Acts chapter 3, that silver and gold have I none.

Thomas Aquinas turned to the cardinal and said, yes, sir, I understand.

But neither can the church say, at the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.

It comes as no surprise to most of us to know that one of the greatest hindrances for God

to work among his children is the silver and the gold.

What do I mean by this?

Our human resources, our own very blessings that God has given us, often get in a way of experiencing the power of God

firsthand, that our trust in our material possessions often hinder us from fully trusting in the

living God. Our preoccupation with what we have, our preoccupation

with what we want to have, often crowding God out and crowding his power from working

in the lives of his children as he would want to work.

That our focus on our likes and our dislikes, our focus on our personal taste,

keeps the hand of God from doing what he wants to do in the midst of his children.

Even those who pray for miracles, even those who want God's supernatural intervention to be

manifested in their lives, they often ask for those things for selfish and self-centered

reasons, not God's glory.

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