IT’S NOT MONEY THAT COUNTS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

Proverbs 28:6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We live in a world where it seems everything is referenced to one thing: money.

It’s true, isn’t it?

It’s the one thing people pursue more than anything else and it seems they can never get enough of it.

Want to really live life to the fullest? The world would tell you that you need money to do it.

Want to have everything you could ever dream of? The world will tell you that you need money to make those dreams come true.

People labor and labor and labor through their lives for money and if they see themselves maybe falling short of reaching their dreams, no worries for the world offers any number of lotteries for people to take chances on. Just give a little of the money you have away and if you’re lucky, you might be able to win all the money you need to get whatever you want. And there is no shortage of things to purchase.

Indeed, we are bombarded with advertisements both on television, in print, and on the internet that encourage us to buy. Our world is one centered on materialism and we have taken the bait. We can’t have enough things and half the time, we don’t even get proper use out of one item we have purchased before we have to buy the newest version that has come out to replace it. Cars, gaming systems, televisions, tablets, and cell phones are just a few examples that instantly come to mind.

We love our money but we love to spend it just as much.

You know that all I’m saying here is absolutely spot-on about the way we’re living and how money has become more and more a dominant influence. I wonder how God feels about all this in light of the following words of His Son Jesus:

“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.” Matthew 6:24

With this, a simple question. Who are we serving more today, God or money?

The words of our Savior let us know point blank that it’s not money that really counts in life. In fact, worshipping money is downright dangerous as we become subservient to it. Money becomes our focal point and master over us when we place it there and God becomes pushed aside, rejected and ignored.

But money is not going to get you anything but a little instant gratification. There’s nothing eternal about accumulating treasures on earth. You can enjoy them in the here and now but when you die, and you WILL die, you will leave everything behind. And then what?

This is why Jesus encourages us in that same passage in Matthew 6 to store up treasures in heaven vice earth, to seek and follow God in all things, serving Him and allowing Him to be the Master over our lives. For when we do that, the Father leads us to the Son through whom we receive something money will never buy: salvation. And that salvation from Jesus, the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) in turn leads us to an everlasting life with Himself and God when this life is over.

Can you see that it’s not money that counts in life?

Solomon, who preceded Jesus but yet spoke many words of wisdom imparted on him by God, had this to say on the topic of money:

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse. Proverbs 28:6

Here we see that righteousness is more important than money and you only find righteousness when you serve God. Remember, you can’t serve both.

Solomon turns the world’s standards upside down. For you can be poor by the world’s measure but rich when it comes to the way you live your life, a life that upon close examination would show one who has amassed great treasures in heaven through obedience service to the Lord who grants those treasures.

Conversely, you can be someone who the world sees as well off, wealthy and without a care in the world, but really be bankrupt spiritually, wicked and sinful and perverse in the eyes of the One who gave you life in the first place, the only One who can offer you eternal life after this life is over.

Scriptures tell us that the poor are better off than the rich when they seek to walk upright and blameless in their lives before the Lord and the rich do not.

Maybe the word of God today is calling on us to wake up and remove the blinders that money places over our eyes, shielding us from the real truth about what matters in life.

For it’s not money that counts. It’s our relationship with God. It was that way more than 2,000 years ago and it’s the same today and forever more. The scriptures affirm it.

The fullest richness in life comes from God and God alone. Seek it and you will find it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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