Love of Money

Love of Money. You cannot do it! You cannot serve God and money. The truth is, God will not be shared. Not only does He demand first place in our hearts and lives; He demands the only place in our hearts and lives!

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:24, NKJV

Love of Money

Is God being unreasonable? No! Stop for a minute and think of the price God paid for our redemption. Was God required to save anyone? No! When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God could have said, "That is it! All of mankind is condemned, forever!"

Is that what God did? No! Even before Adam and Eve sinned, and even before Satan tempted them, God already had salvation's plan in place. How do we know that? Look at Genesis 3:15.

15 And I will put enmity
      Between you and the woman,
      And between your seed and her Seed;
      He shall bruise your head,
      And you shall bruise His heel.”
Genesis 3:15, NKJV

As God pronounced His judgment upon Satan, He gave the first hint as to what He planned to do. He said, "He (Christ) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." In other words, the blow that Satan would give to the Lord Jesus Christ would harm Him--even would lead to His earthly death, but it was not a fatal blow, for Christ would be resurrected from the dead. However, the blow that Christ (the seed of the woman) would give to Satan would be fatal.

In the final day, Satan will be defeated, and will be cast into the lake of fire where He will remain for all eternity.

Considering these things, it is not too much for God to ask of us our all? We owe everything to Christ, for there is no salvation apart from Him. Without Him, we, like Satan, are doomed for eternity. With Christ, however, we will shine as the stars of heaven, living forever with Him.

The Lord Jesus knew that one of man's greatest weaknesses would be his love of money. We all want things, do we not? The eye is never satisfied, nor does our longing for more ever cease. When we achieve that one thing we thought we could not live without, we soon grow weary of its newness and set our eyes upon something new.

Contentment does not come because we finally have received everything we could ever possibly want. Contentment comes, rather, when we look to Christ and realize that He has given us everything we could ever need for peace, joy, and happiness. Harriet Buell caught the essence of this principle in her beautiful hymn, "A Child of the King."

My Father is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full, He has riches untold.Refrain:
I’m a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior,
I’m a child of the King.
My Father’s own Son, the Savior of men,
Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is pleading our pardon on high,
That we may be His, when He comes by and by.
I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, an alien by birth,
But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down,
An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.
A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They’re building a palace for me over there;
Though exiled from home, yet still may I sing:
All glory to God, I’m a child of the King.