June 4

“Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” (Proverbs 23:4-5)

Ok, so there are many people in the world today working to make money; no one will argue with that fact. But there are also many people who have accumulated tremendous wealth, not from merely laboring to be wealthy but to be able to give to others through this powerful means. Christians are not to become weary from labors whose only end is the accrual of wealth. However, we indeed may become tired from the work required to improve the lives of others, particularly the poor and vulnerable.

Money is not to be an end in itself, but a tool that we can use to glorify God and serve others. It is a tool that we use to worship, serve, and offer thanksgiving as good stewards. One test to know if our view of money and wealth is biblical is to ask ourselves if we seek money as something from God that we either deserve or have earned. Or, is money something God gives to us that we use to praise him by returning to him what is rightfully his. We are either takers or givers.

If your eyes are only on money, and not God, it is gone in an instant, because it is used up. However, if you see finances as a means to an end, it is as important as the watch on your wrist, the car you drive, or the gas put in your car, to get you where you need to be at just the right time. Wealth without a function is a pretty girl without a dance partner. They are both lovely and inviting but can give no one enjoyment, since they are incomplete. The use of riches is what honors God, not the amount of money used. “[Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”’ (Mark 12:41-44)

The poor widow gave sacrificially to further the kingdom. Whose money do you have and what will you do with it?