Monday 23rd December 2019 Prayer Devotion
Scripture:- 2 Kings 5:17-27
Topic:- 5 Danger Of Money [1]
Text:- 1 Timothy 6:10
1. Money Can Cause You To Forget God:
Physical neediness can cause you to cry out to God for help, and as you cry out for help, you come to realize that you need it not only physically but also spiritually.
A Pastor of a Church in an extremely affluent community told me that since his people are able to buy their way into or out of just about anything, it is hard for them to think of themselves as needy.
The supposed self-reliance of wealth can tempt us to believe in the larger delusion of our autonomy. That we have a right to live life as we want.
And of our self-sufficiency that we have within ourselves all we need to be what we’re supposed to be and to do what we’re supposed to do.
Money can allow us to afford a self-centered way of living that acts as if nothing is greater than us and more important than our individual wants, needs, and feelings. Now, don’t get me wrong here. There is no teaching in Scripture that would lead us to believe that poor people are better off spiritually than others.
My point is to alert you to one of the dangers of money. Money can function as an ingredient in a lifestyle that, at street level, forgets God’s existence and his plan.
This lifestyle is more about personal glory than God’s glory, and it reduces one’s expenditure of money to personal desire, self-defined need, and the pursuit of individual comfort and pleasure.
Those caught in that lifestyle may not theologically deny the existence of God, but their money supports a lifestyle that ignores it. As money redefines your identity, it can also change the way you look at others.
2. Money Can Change The Way You Think About You:
Money is a stimulant. It will be used to stimulate a Godward way of life or an inward way of life. A friend told me that for years he had prided himself on being committed to and contented with a “simple” lifestyle, that is, until he came into money.
Suddenly he found himself wanting the more luxurious car; he was attracted to the more expensive shirt, and he wanted to eat at the better restaurant.
He said, “It was humbling to admit that I hadn’t been living the simple life because I was spiritually committed to it. I’d been living the simple life because I was poor.”
Money can encourage you to be more self-focused and demanding; it can edge you toward being discontent with what once made you content, and, even more dangerous.
Money can move you to begin to expect from life what you should not expect and to feel that you deserve what you do not deserve.
Money really can have a huge influence on how you define yourself and how you think about your life and on the expectations that shape your disappointments.
3. Money Can Cause You To Look Down On Others:
What was going on was very clear and very sad. The affluent kids stood around and made fun of a homeless man who was doing his best to get out of their way. What was the difference between the kids and the homeless man?
Well, in the deepest and most profound way, there was no difference. The kids and the homeless guy were all made in the image of God and meant to reflect his glory. They were all sinners in desperate need of redemption.
Neither the homeless man nor the affluent teenagers had been in charge of all the circumstances that had led them to their place in life.
Neither the kids nor the man could stand before God and say they deserve anything. But the boys didn’t see themselves as similar to the man. They saw themselves as a higher order of human being, and they treated the poor man as less than human.
What caused them to think the way they thought and to treat the man the way they did? Well, there are many answers to that question, too many for us to consider here, but there was one major ingredient that fueled it all—money.
To those suburban high school boys, this man was a vagrant, a bum, a loser. They were the chosen ones. It was ugly and mean, but it pictured one of the dangers of money.
As money redefines your identity, it can also change the way you look at others. Money can stimulate the prideful prejudice that lurks somewhere in the heart of every sinner.
Prayer Point:- Oh Lord God, help me not to love money more than You, but to love You with all my being henceforth by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Have A Lovely Monday!
