Wealth

I feel like I have a fairly uncommon approach to the idea of wealth. Call me crazy, but I don't believe that the God of the Bible wants to give me money for the brand new Toyota Tacoma I've been eyeing through the targeted social media advertisements showing up on my feed. Even if I pleaded and prayed, justifying my capitalistic americanized prayer by convincing myself that it was within the "desires of my heart", I have to ask myself at a certain point, what am I really praying for? We read in Matthew 6:24 the words of Jesus as he says: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." The word "mammon" is mamōnas, and means riches or treasure. Wealth. We cannot serve both God and wealth. We read initially and excitedly say to ourselves, "Of course I would serve God and not wealth!" Do we hate wealth though? Often separated by categorized sub-chapter headings added well after the accounts were written, these verses when read in context are interesting. Read verse 19-21, 22-23, then 25 after. When we read it all together it flows quite well. We learn that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. We should not lay up treasure for ourselves on earth, but in heaven. We learn that the lamp of the body is the eye. If our eyes are good, our body will be full of light, but if our eye is bad, our body will be full of darkness, and how great will that darkness be. We cannot serve two masters, we must hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. We can therefore find solace in the realization that God takes care of our needs, and we have no need to be worried. "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" He says in verse 25. Our heavenly Father knows that we need these things. We are instructed to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us. I encourage you, reader, to search these scriptures for yourself. Ask yourself what kind of weights you are placing on the wealth found in this life, and what your life would really look like if those things were gone, or never attained. I myself find much freedom in the simple idea that at the very least, God promises to clothe me. To feed me. It is this peaceful solace where I find rest from the copious amount of stress that consistently find ways to slither into my life and siphon the possibility to store up those eternal treasures. I find that within such stress and anxiety, I am infinitely incapable of following God in His direction, and am equally deficient in loving the people around me properly, as to shine with light that fills the body. Indeed how great is the darkness that fills me those days. What do you think of these verses? Do you have any other interpretations? Ask some questions and make some comments from your thoughts, and I'll see you in the next post.