Money

1 Timothy 6:9-10
But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

Money is one of the driving forces in today's world. I guess that has not changed since the beginning of the civilized world. Here is Paul speaking right to our current issues from two thousand years ago.

When things start to get out of hand, like the price of gasoline, people start to blame big business and question why those businesses need to make so much money. We are close to $4.00 a gallon and it seems to be climbing daily. We blame the US oil businesses when it really comes down to those supplying the raw material who are busy supporting a war in their own country.

It does not matter how much money we are talking about. The spirit of greed can be working in the life of someone making minimum wage as well as the person earning a six figure income. They each want more and will do whatever it takes to make it. And they do it all so that they can have the latest cell phone, the hottest Wii or X-box game, the exotic vacation, or whatever.

I am reminded of the old cartoons of Uncle Scrooge and his huge cache of money that he would dive into. He loved his money and was more interested in just getting more of it than in using it to purchase anything.

To obtain things we need to have money. But it is not the love of new things that is the issue. It is the love of money. After all it is the availability of money that creates the ability to get those new things. Then the cycle starts. We need more and more money to get more and more things. Everything we do involves making more money and before you know it the love of money controls us.

How many go to college pursuing an education to enhance their ability to make large amounts of money instead of using college to further their knowledge in the area they love, the area they are called by God to enter into? Too many, I am sure.

So lets reassess our motive for making money. Is it to sustain us in our God given call or is it to allow us to stand out in the community with all the things we have and do? Do we love God or money?