According to Forbes magazine, there are now 1,826 billionaires in the world. With this rise in the number of billionaires I began to wonder — how much is $1 billion? Here’s what I found:

Suppose a man gave his wife $1 million. He told her to go out and spend $1,000 a day. She did. Three years later she returned to tell him that the money was all gone and she wanted more.

He then gave her $1 billion. He told her to go out and spend $1,000 a day. She didn’t come back for 2,739 years.

Or suppose a business started in the year 1 A.D. with $1 billion capital. But the business was so unsuccessful that it lost $1,000 a day. It would still be in business today, after having lost $1,000 daily for more than 2,000 years, and could continue more than 700 years longer, or until the year 2739, until its original capital of $1 billion would be exhausted.

Or if someone would give you $1 billion in dollar bills on the condition that you count each one, do not do it. It will take you 60 years, 365 days a year, eight hours a day — and it may break your health before you are half through.

Bill Gates, co-founder, chairman, chief software architect, and ex-CEO of Microsoft is once again rated by Forbes Magazine as the richest person in the world (a title he has held for 16 of the past 21 years).

Gates is currently worth (are you ready for this?) approximately $79.2 billion. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently 7.3 billion people in the world. Bill Gates could afford to give $10 to every man, woman and child on the planet and still have money left over for incidentals.

Here’s something else to think about: If Bill Gates found a $100 bill lying on the ground, it wouldn’t be worth his time to pick it up. In the four seconds it would take for him to bend down, pick it up and pocket it, he would have already made over $200 in investments.

So why all this talk about money? Jesus said in Mark 8:36-37: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

In other words, your soul is your most valuable asset. Now, don’t misunderstand me…I have nothing against Bill Gates. I simply want you to think about how much you are worth to God.

The sad truth is there are people who spend a great amount of their time trying to accumulate earthly wealth yet they pass by the greatest treasure of all. I am not against wealth or success and neither is God. But what good is success without knowing how to get to heaven?

What good does it do to have a five year plan for your company and yet not know where you’ll go if your life ends today?

No matter what goals you have set for the future take a moment and ask yourself this question: What am I living for?

You see, Jesus is the door to heaven and true riches. So the next time you are feeling down or depressed just remember: To God you are worth more than $79 billion.