Don’t Fall For It!

• How do you feel about money?

• How do you think God feels about money?

Now the overseer is to be above reproach … not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
1 Timothy 3:2-3

In these verses from Timothy, Paul is describing how leaders of the church should behave: They should not become drunk, violent, or quarrelsome, or love money.

Many Christians struggle with this money part. The world tries to teach us that money is everything, that money makes us happy and that money makes all our problems go away. These are all lies from the enemy. We can have all the money in the world and still go to hell.

When we love money, we live for money, not God. Luke 16 tells us that we cannot serve both God and money and that we will end up loving one and hating the other (see v. 13). If loving money means hating God, then we should definitely make sure we do not love money.

This does not mean that we should get rid of our money. In most places in the world, money is necessary. We work hard to earn money, and money allows us to provide for ourselves and our families. But we are not supposed to love money. We are supposed to love God. Money is just a tool we use to serve him.

PRAYER
Dear God, please help us to recognize money for what it is: a tool that we use to serve you during our lives on earth. Please help us to love you, not money; keep us from falling for the world’s lies. Amen.