Where Your Heart Is…

Have you ever wondered what Paul was talking about in the Bible when he wrote to Timothy,

“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

That verse is often quoted, “Money is the root of all evil”, but that is not what it says. It says, “The LOVE of money” is the root of evil. As is true with so many things in this life, I do not think it is money that is at issue, but rather where is your heart positioned when it comes to money. It is not how much money we have that is at issue, but whether our trust is in that money, or our trust is in God’s provision.

I think if Paul were writing this today, he might have written,

“Dependence on credit cards is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Ouch, I can feel the collective groan as I write this, but I feel so strongly that in our culture we have replaced our trust in God and His provision with a trust in a plastic card. When you have a need, big or small, what do you do if it looks like God is going to be “late” in His provision? What if the bill seems too big and you have no idea how to pay it? Where do you go? Where does your heart turn? I think many times our mouths cry out to God to deliver us and our faith goes toward putting it on the credit card. IT is certain, IT is dependable, IT is on our time schedule…. IT has our heart.

If you today cannot imagine your world without credit cards I just want to challenge you to ask yourself where your trust is. A credit card makes a horrific god. It may be a quick answer, but it brings no real solution and just adds more debt and baggage to whatever situation you bring to it. Again, it is not that credit cards are evil, but dependence and faith in them will produce all kinds of evil in your life. Only God is trustworthy with your heart and with your finances, and only a heart trusting in His provision can find contentment. A life trusting in God is not an easy path, but a life enslaved to debt is even harder. We have to choose where we are going to place our trust.

OK, so I “got my preach on” this morning but I do want to also give you the promised information… actually, I am going to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow I will deal with how to set your budgetable income if you are paid every two weeks. For today, I want to leave you with this…

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and HE SHALL bring it to pass.”
Psalm 37: 4,5,&7