Professional Inspirations #15: Mammon

Psa 25:4-5 Make your ways known to me, O LORD, and teach me your paths. (5) Lead me in your truth and teach me because you are God, my savior. I wait all day long for you.

BE AWARE OF MAMMON

Mat 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. He will hate the first master and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and despise the second. You cannot serve God and wealth.

The People's New Testament commentary;
Mammon originally meant trust, or confidence, and riches is the trust of worldly men.

The Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
If God be not the object of supreme trust, something else will be, and it is more likely to be money.

God requires the whole heart, and will not share it with the world.

He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise God; he who loves God, must give up the friendship of the world.

These are harsh views and have left myself with many questions, and I can gladly admit that the LORD is giving me some sence of discernment.

Not to long ago me and my wife were window shopping, walked into Woolworth's, saw a pair of shoes on sale, nearly bought it, but decided against buying it because "I already had a pair of brown shoes that can last a while longer"
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How many a time have many, probably most of us decided against proritizing buying something because of worldly / material gain (or not)?
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How many times lately have we consciously weighed up spending our money, and decided against doing it purely based on spiritual considerations?

I found the following verse...interesting is it not?

Ecc 2:26 GW God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to anyone who pleases him. But to the person who continues to sin, he gives the job of gathering and collecting wealth. The sinner must turn his wealth over to the person who pleases God. Even this is pointless. It's like trying to catch the wind.

Jesus came to the world to, from within GOD, and trough the spiritual gifts from GOD (1Co 12:8-10), to reach out to people and to bless them. When Jesus left, he left this work to be performed by each Christian. Through the working of the Holy Spirit all Christians are bounded into one spiritual body i.e. the Church.

We need to learn to make place for the Holy Spirit to be able to function spiritually. Therefore; Luk 9:23 He (Jesus) said to all of them, "Those who want to come with me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses every day, and follow me.

Then of course...

A time ( in personal spiritual growth ) should come when all of us Christians should realize that wealth and and money is not the priority of life here on earth. Mat 6:20-21 But keep on storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

This was a difficult topic for me. Do we stop working? Stop prioritizing what we do at work? Stop committing ourselves to our work?

Certainly not. I believe the question lies in in the BALANCE that we maintain in life.

We can work, but give GOD the honour,
We can achieve, and thank GOD,
We can earn money, and give GOD what He is entitled to.

Is that not prioritizing GOD first AND then working in His eternal peace?