Written by Guest Contributor, Bible League International | February 3, 2022
Keep your lives free from the love of money. And be satisfied with what you have. God has said, “I will never leave you; I will never run away from you.” – Hebrews 13:5 ERV
There is nothing wrong with money, per se. We need it most every day. It’s a very useful tool with which to conduct commercial and financial transactions. Without money, we would have to go back to the days of barter. We would have to lug our possessions around every time we wanted to improve ourselves financially. Money is one of the best inventions of humankind.
The problem is not money, but the love of money. The Apostle Paul said, “The love of money causes all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). The problems begin when people only live to make money. Instead of living to serve and love God, they live to acquire as much money as they can. That’s why Paul went on to say in 1 Timothy that some people have even “turned away from what we believe because they want to get more and more money.” Instead of living meaningful lives in obedience to God, they squandered their lives “trying to catch the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
Money is like the wind. It’s difficult to hold on to. You never really catch it. You never really catch as much as you want. It has a way of eluding your grasp and slipping through your fingers. The minute you think you have enough of it, the stock market dips, or the banks fail, or thieves steal some of it, or inflation reduces its value. Chasing after money is like trying to catch the wind because, like everything else in created reality, money is here today and gone tomorrow. It doesn’t make much sense therefore, to build your life around its acquisition.
It’s much better to serve and love God than money, because He will always be there for you. When we place God first in our lives, everything else falls into place, everything else falls into the subsidiary positions where they belong. When we place God first, we still make and use money, but we don’t live for it. We still do what we can to improve ourselves financially, but we’re also satisfied with what we have. We’re satisfied because we trust God to take care of us, not money.
Unlike money, God will never leave us. He will never run away from us.
Photo Credit: Saad Chaudhry
Bible League International is located in the Chicago suburb of Crete, Illinois, where it extends its global impact in Bible translation, international church planting, evangelism training and Bible-based literacy for the under-resourced Church worldwide. Founded in 1938 as a simple act of giving away Bibles door-to-door in Northwest Indiana, Bible League International now provides biblically based training and resources in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. In its 80 plus year existence, Bible League International continues to share God’s good news of salvation through its network of generous givers, intercessors, ambassadors and volunteers.
