« Stewardship Devotional
Day Eight - The Antidote
1 Timothy 6:18 “…do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
Read
1 Timothy 6:6-9, 17-19
Apply
Paul has already warned us about the dangerous side of money in this passage. He now turns to the Biblical use of money, by urging Timothy to teach the rich in Ephesus: to invest their treasure into eternal purposes. The purpose of wealth is to do good with it. What a noble and high calling. Note that he doesn’t command the rich to become poor. Instead he commands the rich to be generous, “rich in good deeds.” They give up one type of riches to gain another. And in doing that, they break the enslaving grip that treasures have on our heart. In short, the antidote for money’s poisonous effect in our lives is generosity. It’s an antidote of drinking the sweet medicine of trusting in God’s control of the future, trusting in the “life that is truly life.” This is first of all a generosity of the heart. The heart has to turn from loving good deeds more than loving riches. But that is a measurable turning. The desire to give is easily quantified-when money actually leaves the account and goes to God’s kingdom.
- John Newton’s method was to figure out what a “barely decent” lifestyle was (home, food, clothing), and then to give one penny away for every penny spent on oneself. What would your life be like if you followed that method?
- What do you think about people who have a lot more money and possessions than you do? Are they better people, more secure, live a better life?
Pray
Pray for a renewed heart that recognizes the power of money to turn your desires away from Christ and is able to counter that power by remembering the beauty of Christ.
Do
Take one alluring aspect of money and write a list of the ways it affects your life. For example, “The ways that I act like money gives me pleasure are…” or “The ways that I act like money makes me better than other people are…”
Copyright 1997. Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York City