“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.”
I’ve been talking about our $tuff - with the dollar sign - as a reminder. Generosity is not just about giving money away. It is about giving - period. That includes my money to be sure but it also includes my things, my time, my emotion, my support and empathy...myself.
Why does Jesus talk so much about money and $tuff? Apparently, it matters a lot! We would do well to understand that $tuff is not just our inanimate things, our “toys”- pretty innocuous and relatively harmless, right?
In fact, $tuff is more like a living, breathing, hungry creature with teeth and claws than it is a toy. So much so that it is given a name, an identity in scripture - mammon. This living thing wants to get its teeth and claws into you, to consume you. And its appetite is insatiable.
It wants to own you.
It wants you to think it defines you and will fulfill you.
It wants you to believe that it is invaluable, that it “makes the world go around” and is really all you need.
So what would it do to this beast if you said, “This is what I think of you!” and gave it away...freely and liberally.
Instead of letting it own and define you, you put it to use for the needy world, for the Kingdom and glory of God.
No more teeth. No more claws. Just freedom and fruit.
NEXT STEPS
As Christians, we do not separate the soul from the body, the sacred from the secular. $tuff is as sacred as prayer, therefore what we do with it matters a lot.
Take time to ask God to help show you the place $tuff has in your life today. Maybe ask a friend or your spouse to tell you what they see in you?
Begin each day by praying for an awareness of the power of the beast and then for practical, real ways to de-claw it today.
Ask God to give you more of His heart, more love for Him today than for $tuff.
End the day by looking back and recognizing where you saw God alive in this wrestling.