“When we set our affections above we are more effective below.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – January 17, 2021
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24
How do you know if you love God or money more? Ask, do you worry more about missing your prayer time or missing your paycheck? Are you more anxious about what the Almighty thinks or do you obsess over the opinion of others? Are you driven to seek God’s Kingdom first, or to blindly build your kingdom? Devotion to the eternal or the temporal cannot be a both/and, but a choice of which one really captures your worship.
Money makes promises it cannot keep, like security, peace and prosperity. But the Lord makes you promises He does keep, like grace, forgiveness, joy and contentment. When the commands of these two contradict who will you follow, Christ or cash? Decide now, so when you are in the emotion of the moment you do not give in to glittering gold.
What keeps you up at night? Is it how to make more money or how to make more of Jesus? Set your affections above and you will be more effective below. The Lord is looking for His children with whom He can entrust more of His blessings. He longs for the faithful who use their finances to draw lost souls to salvation, hurting people to healing and who boldly pray, “your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.
Perhaps you take your family on a mission trip, and see how the masses live with little money, but with a lot of the Lord. It is revolutionary for a soul that has been seduced by the mistress of money to see how believers without stuff affectionately embrace their Lord and Savior Jesus. Expose your faith to the poor, so you are liberated from wealth.
It is a heart issue. Who captures your affections, your Savior or your stuff? Money makes a poor master, but a useful servant. While indeed, Jesus is the trustworthy Master with whom you can place your faith and devotion. Money tries to maneuver itself into a place of priority, but by faith you can relegate it to serve righteous causes. Love Him not it.
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I pray money is a servant to your will for my life, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Application
What masters my mind and holds my heart: God or money? Who needs my generous giving?
Related Reading
Malachi 3:8-10; Matthew 6:10; Colossians 3:1-10; 1 Timothy 6:6-10
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