Have you ever gone to the store and forgotten your wallet? Depending on how far along you were in your shopping, it can be embarrassing. You probably don't go to the store manager and ask them if you can simply pay for it later. You have to give up and go back to retrieve some method of payment.
Here in Revelation, the rich are being made aware that they are actually poor. In God's store, their money can't buy anything... but the good news is that God's economy doesn't work like our own. In God's economy, those most ready to buy are those that realize they don't have any acceptable currency. We like to think of our good works as currency, but the Gospel opens our eyes to the reality that our good works aren't enough to overcome our sin. We are bankrupt, but in God's economy, the realization that we are bankrupt actually becomes the currency we need to buy from God treasure beyond compare. With the realization that we are poor, we then become rich, and we are clothed in white garments, dressed for the banquet in heaven, because we who are poor are made rich by the love and mercy of God.
If we claim to be rich, we miss out because we're poor. If we realize that we are poor, that we had treasure and squandered it through the holes in our pockets, then we recognize that we are made rich beyond our wildest dreams, beyond all we can ask or imagine, and life truly begins!
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