Proverbs 15:16,17,  Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.  Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

Here in these "Better is" proverbs God gives a recipe for things better.

All of us are interested in knowing how to choose what is better and because God is love he does not intend for us to be ignorant of the better things for our life.

The entire Bible points us to that which is better.

Look at Hebrews the "better than" book of the Bible.

We find that Jesus Christ is better than the angels.

Today we see the world going after angels rejecting Jesus Christ, the "better than" of the Bible.

The only Jesus that the world goes after is a world invented Jesus.

A Jesus that allows the world to be comfortable and secure while it stays in its sin!

Hebrews tells us that Jesus brought in a better hope and a better testament, a better covenant and better promises.

He brought a better sacrifice, a better and more enduring substance, a better country and a better resurrection.

But the world makes every effort to convince of that which it considers better.

The world promotes the good life, the better life.

The better life of the world does not include that which God requires for the better life.

The world's better life is opposed to God's better life.

The world's better life is built around money and material things.

For the world the phrase used in popular commercials "It doesn't get any better than this" is true.

That is as good as it is going to get for those who know not God.

The world promotes that which is temporal but God promotes that which is eternal.

The world's better life is built around the body, its presentation and its preservation.

But God's better life is built around Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ does in the heart.

The world's better life concerns things outward but God's better life concerns things inward.

Someone has said  "Riches and poverty are more in the heart than in the hand."

The world measures the poverty of the outward man while God measures the poverty of the inward man.

The world measures poverty by income but God measures poverty by outgo.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:11,  Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

To the world bigger is better!

To the world much is better, many is better, large is better but to God little is better.

He withholds from those whom he loves not from lack of love but from love itself.

He knows what real needs are and what will tempt and what will ensnare.

He knows that great treasure and trouble are twins.

Where great treasure is, there is great trouble.

He knows that great treasure blinds the eye from the light of the word of God.

Those with great treasure may have heard the word but are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring forth no fruit to perfection.

So God says that better is little with the fear of the LORD.

The world attempts in every way to lure its own into the quest for gain.

Gain is security, so says the world.

Gain will bring safety, gain will buy those who guard the body and the houses and the lands and the treasure.

The world convinces that presentation and preservation of the body is the highest purpose and its efforts all aim at that purpose.

Gain and wealth and power and profit are all for the body.

But God says that security lies in the fear of Him.

Security lies in living a life that realizes that He is the one with whom you have to do

Jesus Christ taught in Luke 12:4,5,  And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

We tend to fear those who contribute to our next meal, to those who help us provide for ourselves and our family, to those whom we can see.

But Jesus says to be not afraid of them who have control of your body.

They do not control the end! The end of the body is not the end.

Fear Him who has control of the end, fear him who hath power to cast into hell, Fear him, Jesus Christ says.

Fear him who is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Fear him who in his sight all things are naked and opened.

Fear him who commands the sea to give up its dead, who gathers up the dead from death and from hell.

Fear him, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Fear him whom the dead small and great will stand before.

Fear him who will open the books and the book of life.

Fear him who will judge out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Fear him who has the book of life in his hands and has commanded that whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The secret of life and so few want to know, so few will follow!

So many go after the riches and the power of this world and do not consider this simple truth of God.

Give me the great treasure and I'll risk the trouble, they say.

Just let me win the lottery and see how much good I'll do.

Will the good they do, do good to their children, or their mate?

Will the dinner of herbs or vegetables where love is be discarded in the process?

Will they get what they wanted and lose what they had, even if what they lose is a dinner of vegetables served with the love of a faithful wife?

Will the lottery or the riches or the inheritance bring a stalled ox, a fattened cupboard and full pantry along with hatred and disorder in the family?

Whatever God gives is better than what is invented in its place.

If all you have is vegetables, but "Love" put the vegetables on the table you are a wealthy person.

If you are contented you are wealthy.

But if you always want, if you always desire, and are not content, you are poor for you always lack what you want.

All that is in the earth will not satisfy one of the world but a little will satisfy a heart created by God, a heart born from above.

Where love is the meal is sweetened, be it simple herbs or greens or vegetables.

Where love is contentment reigns, where love is there is no need of an ox ready for slaughter.

We ought to live this life expecting little from the world and everything from God.

And that which God provides is always the better.

As Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6-8,  But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.