[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Monday, July 29, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day once again to most of you.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that your day is going well or went well.

Stephen H. Geiger, a professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mequon WI wrote an article some years ago entitled "Love Money?" which is rendered as follows:

We know it's not right to love money.  When the image of Midas counting coins comes to mind, we remember the tragic consequence--love for gold reduced his daughter to lifeless metal.  If fiction gives hints, the apostle Paul's words to Timothy leave no doubt:  "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Tim 6:10).

We don't want to love money.  We know that money is misplaced.  We know that looking to money as if it was our god is wrong.

Yet, do you ever find yourself doing just that?

The Love of Money

We may not wake up each morning bowing down to our wallets, and we may not whisper declarations of love into the ears of our financial statements.

But we may be quite familiar with fear.  We can become afraid after losing a huge amount of money; we wonder how life will now need to change.  We can become afraid when we hardly have enough money to pay next month's rent.

We may also be familiar with false confidence.  We can think our financial futures are solid because we've saved for years and our investment choices seem to be the right ones.  Even if our savings accounts are not so large, we still may place confidence in them, sure that with our thriftiness they will carry us through.

Do you love money?

We know it's not right to love money, but at times we find ourselves doing just that.  We didn't think we could become so afraid, but we have.  We did not think we could so thoughtlessly bump God down on our list of priorities, but we have.  We so easily trade the Preserver of the universe for paper and numbers that moth and rust will surely destroy.

The Love of Our God

In our shame, the voice of true treasure speaks.  There was a substitute who walked in our sandals.  In the face of his own temptations to be self-confident and to fear, he repeatedly confessed, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid."

Even Jesus' enemies recognized this.  "He trusts in God.  Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him" (Matt 27:43).

The God who washed away our love for false treasure now promises that he won't forsake us.  He will never leave us.  He is our helper.  We do not need to be afraid.

"Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them." (Ps 62:10).  In times of prosperity, God has not stopped being our helper.  He gave you everything you needed before financial difficulty came.  He will give you everything you need now that difficulty has come.  Love and trust your God.

And there you have Stephen's short but insightful article on money, which I hope you enjoyed and perhaps even learned something from.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul