Thursday, March 14, 2024

Listen to the Word

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.  (Luke 16:13)

Money can serve us in many helpful ways. It can supply us with food and shelter. It can be a tool we use to bless others and meet their needs. Money is a useful servant. But money tends to be unsatisfied staying in the position of servant. It wants to be in charge. The more money we have, the more we tend to let money have us. Money becomes our master.

And Jesus states the obvious for us: if money is our boss, then God isn’t. If we live for the almighty dollar, we are no longer living for Almighty God. Devotion to God leads us down a particular path, and devotion to money beckons us down an entirely different path. When we notice that money is rising up our priority list, that should set off an alarm notifying us that God is moving proportionately down that list. God wants us to manage our money in a way that honors him, and not let our money manage us.

Live the Word

Take an opportunity to give something away today, to a ministry or to a person in need. Ask God to use that act of giving to break some of the power that money has over you.