« Stewardship Devotional
Day Five - Who Do We Worship?
Matthew 6:24-25 “You cannot serve both God and Money Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.”
Read
Matthew 6:24-34
Apply
Jesus personifies wealth as Mammon. He even gives it the status of a false God, an idol, and lays down an all-or-nothing claim: if you worship wealth, you won’t worship God. Our heart cannot contain two masters, two gods.
Worry is an indicator of worship. What you worry about is what you don’t want to lose. Therefore, Jesus says that worrying about money and your future is an indicator of a lack of trust in God. Worse, it shows that the heart’s true hope is in wealth. “His words are so uncomfortable that even those of us who say we love him and fight to defend Scripture’s authority find ourselves looking for ways around what he says.”1
Research has shown that many people do not give because they are afraid. 6 The only way to ever stop worrying about money is to break its stranglehold on your heart by becoming generous. When you give money away, you stop worshipping it.
- If you gave until it lowered your lifestyle, would you be worried? Of what?
- What would you give up to become enormously rich? Would you give up friends and family? Would you give up your time? Christ? What would you give up just to be ‘comfortable’?
Pray
Pray for a renewed heart that worships Christ alone and rejects the idol of Mammon.
Do
Catch yourself worshipping money-daydreaming, or worrying about it. Worship Christ instead using the same loving terms: “If I only had more of Jesus…”, “With more of Christ in my life we could…”, “I hope my new job gives me plenty of time to serve Jesus…” etc.
1 Matthew: IVP New Testament Commentary, Craig Keener (Downers Grove: IVP, 1997) Comment on 6:24
Copyright 1997. Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York City