The Trouble With Money

"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." - 1 Timothy 6:6-10

Have you been watching the news lately? Politicians coming under attack because of questionable activities in a quest to have more money. A professional golfer can win as much as 10 million dollars for winning a tournament. For knocking a little white ball into a hole with fewer strokes than the rest of the players. Professional football, basketball and baseball players are getting paid millions of dollars a year for playing a game for the entertainment of other less talented people. The list goes on. Wealth has become the god of our age. People who have much want more. There is a quote attributed to John D. Rockefeller, "How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.” 

"And He [Jesus] said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." - Luke 12:15-21

At the root of our old nature - our flesh - is the want for more. Really it is a quest to fill what We have put our trust in ourselves over trust in God.  An abridge quote I have often heard is that "in every person there is a god-shaped void that only God can fill". In other words - money, fame, possessions will not. The quote is attributed to a number of people but the actual quote is by Blaise Pascal.

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself" - page 75 of Blaise Pascal’s Pensees (New York; Penguin Books, 1966).

Our eyes are fixed on the "here and now" - our mortal lives and not the "there and then" - the eternal. All along not realizing that the eternal is here and now. Our eternity with God started the day we trusted in Jesus by faith. Our struggle comes from the fact that we trust ourselves and not God. Paul said that food and clothes should be enough. Well - we might add shelter. But everything else is excess to our needs. It is not that we should not have things but that the things should not have us. Credit card debt in the U.S. has grown from $760 Billion in 2010 to $1.1 trillion in 2023. It has increased by 26% and is on the climb. That means that we are buying things that we don't have the money to pay for when we buy it. Like the old E.G Wentworth commercials, "I want it now and don't care that I will end up paying 3 times its value to satisfy my flesh today. "Now godliness with contentment is great gain". That contentment can only be found by faith and a vital relationship with our Father through the Son by the Spirit.

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone