I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
"No servant 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."
Money is inescapable. Every day, there is the pressure to earn it and the necessity of spending it.
Beyond the necessities, there is the constant pull of our "wants." The world is highly skilled at placing new "wants" in our heads. Usually, we didn't know we wanted until our neighbors or the little screens in our houses made the suggestion.
"Stuff" is not inherently sinful, but it does have the power to pull our hearts and focus. It does give us a faulty form of people-measurement, by which we allow bank account figures to determine our own, or another's worth.
For Jesus, I really believe money was simply a tool. Like his teaching on keeping sabbath, (Sabbath was made for people, not people for the sabbath), he knows that living with money means a constant call to focus and perspective.
We can't serve God and worldly wealth. How do we make that choice in our lives? What could God be calling us to think about, and change, starting today?
Prayer: Father God, teach us to have just one master, and to give ourselves completely to your love and grace.
Tomorrow's Reading: I Timothy 2:1-7
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