Watch Out for Money!

Money is such a powerful thing. Honestly I have never paid much attention to money until recently. I have been basically a middle class person my whole life. My parents made a decent living & I have earned a decent salary for most of my adult life . . . until recently. And this season of life has given me a new respect for the dollar.

You may be wondering what I mean by that so let me explain. I have been able to see lately just how much money means to a person’s well-being. So much is available to someone who has money and the opposite is true too. For instance, if you do not have money, you do not have access to healthy food. Cheaper foods are high in sugar and fat. They also cause greater health problems that in turn lead to more healthcare costs. And so a person near or below the poverty line will end up with bad health simply because they had no other choice. He eats the cheaper food, has more health problems and ends up getting government aid to help provide the necessary healthcare for his diabetes or cancer. And that is because he does not have enough money. Children in poverty end up living in government housing. Quite often, these neighborhoods are where gangs & criminals live & they dictate the lives of the residents. But if a person gets a decent job & earns enough money to pay higher rent or to purchase a home, he can escape the violence. However if he does not have enough money, this person lives all of his life surrounded by crime and fear.

In other words, money seems to be the answer to every problem. Money can bring healing, peace, safety, and assurance. A person who has money has every need in his life met. But hold on a minute! That sounds a lot like God to me. Isn’t He the one who is supposed to meet every need, give healing and peace and keep people from harm? It is no wonder why Jesus said what He did in the Sermon on the Mount – “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.” Money really is a powerful competitor with God because we are prone to believe that money is as good as God. And sometimes without even thinking about it. And that is the dangerous part.