For the love of money - Devotion for 9/27/07

For the love of money – Devotion for 9/27/07

It’s funny to me that the last thing my wife and I talked about this morning before I left the house was about money, and then this morning I come into the office to do my daily Bible reading and the passage I was to read for today was about money (I think God planned that). Life was so much simpler when we were kids because back then we didn’t worry too much about money. I knew that my family didn’t have much, but I also knew we always had a meal on the table, and I always had clothes to wear. When I was young there may have been certain toys that I really wanted (like a Stretch Armstrong) and certain household things I knew would make our lives better (like a Commodore 64), but all in all I was pretty content. I didn’t worry about where my lunch money was coming from, and I didn’t worry about where my clothes were coming from. I didn’t even really care what I wore and whether it matched or not.

But then I began to get a little older. Suddenly the type of shoes that I wore became more and more important (“Can I please have the white Nike’s with the blue swoosh?”), and the shirts had to have a little alligator logo sewn on the front. The older I got the more concerned I became about money, or more importantly our lack thereof. With each year passing, money became more and more important, and the desire to acquire/earn money grew more and more. Now as an adult, money plays a prominent role every day – money for the kids lunch, money for my lunch, money for gas, money for bills. This trend is not something that is unique just to Adam Seate – this trend is extremely common. Something that as kids we didn’t worry much about eventually becomes such a big part of our life that it is the leading cause of divorce in America. Think about it – if you’re married, have you ever had an argument with your spouse about money?

The passage of scripture that I read this morning was 1 Timothy 6:1-19, and a large part of that passage regards money and what we do with it. Verses 8-10 read, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Let’s find contentment in food and covering. Let’s find contentment like a child, knowing that we may not have everything we want, but we have what we need. Don’t let money cause us to wander away from our faith and cause us the pain and grief that Paul speaks of to Timothy.