Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Psalm 33:6-9; Matthew 19:16-22; 1 Peter 1:18; Hebrews 2:14, 15; Exodus 9:14; Psalm 50:10.
Memory Text: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11, NKJV).
God does not waste words explaining His perspective on excessive obsession with money and material things. Christ’s words to the greedy rich man who, though blessed by the Lord, hoarded and hoarded what he had, should put the fear of God in us all: “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20, 21, NKJV).
Serving God and serving money are mutually exclusive actions. It’s one or the other, God or mammon. It is a fantasy to think we can have it both ways because living a double life will sooner or later catch up to us. We might fool others, maybe even ourselves, but not God, to whom we will one day have to give an account.
We have to make a choice, and the longer we hesitate, make excuses, or procrastinate, the stronger the hold that money and the love of money will exert on our soul. Faith requires a decision.
What should make our decision so much easier is focusing on who God is, what He has done for us, and what we owe Him.
