This morning, I was just supposed to observe and support some of my colleagues who were holding an event with Unleash International (http://www.unleashinternational.com) and I was unwittingly pulled into the seminar by a friend who was working with them. I did not finish the seminar but I learned a lot of things in the short time I was there.
One of the message that I wanted to share with you that I learned today is that of all the things that God can compare Himself to, He compared Himself to money. Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Its pretty clear here that there are two possible masters that we can have in this world–God and money. This verse shows clear evidence that there is battle for your affection. God loves you and wants you, so does money.
I heard it said that money is not inherently bad. I agree. Its the abuse and greed for money is where the problem lies. We may not easily notice it but sometimes, in our pursuit of “noble” goals: why we want to accumulate wealth, we fall into the trap of depending, i.e. worshipping money and ignoring God altogether.
What does this mean?
An example of a noble goal is to provide for the needs of your family. A nice house, a car, a prestigious school to put your children into. All these things require money. Nothing really wrong. But in our efforts to achieve these goals, there is the danger of neglecting the One True Source of money–God. When we are successful in business or in our jobs, we may come to a conclusion that we are able to do these things because of our intelligence, wit and hard work.
But check this out, in your pursuit of “providing” for your loved ones, when was the last time that you spent a good amount of quality time with them? A good amount would probably be an hour or two of just you and the object(s) of your love. Quality time is quantity time. How will you give it if most of the time you are working?
It is so sad to see Filipinos leaving their families for “greener” pastures abroad and come home to broken relationships. I have heard a lot of stories of wives working as domestic helpers in other countries and then coming home to a house where her husband has left her for another woman. Or children addicted to drugs or daughters who are pregnant without the “benefit” of a husband. When we are out there “slaving” for money our families are suffering. We are not able to care for them, or even just listening to them.
Unknowingly, our relentless pursuit of wealth becomes an object of worship. Have you heard people say something like this: “If we do not have money, I will not be able to send you to a good school.” Or this: “If I do not work, how will I be able to pay for our new car?” These words are the words of people who have turned themselves over to money.
God is a jealous God and He does not want you to put your dependence on money. Let us depend only in God, the Maker of all things. Let us give to Him our worries and concerns about money matters. He can easily show us His grace and His provision if we will just believe. We can easily produce money. It is also easily squandered.
If the object of our worship is God, we will not be afraid of what will happen in the future because we can believe that God will take care of us–even our problems.
