Addicted to Money
Exodus 25:1-2 The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to bring me gifts. You will accept gifts for me from everyone who is willing to give.”
How much of your time do you spend thinking about money; dreaming about being rich, thinking about buying the things you really want to buy? For most people the answer is … rather a lot. That has to tell you something.
It’s so easy to be obsessed with money. I used to be addicted to the idea of wealth. It had a real grip on my heart. I use “addicted” very deliberately, because that’s what it was for me. Bigger house, bigger car, more expensive watch … but it was never, ever enough.
I used to kid myself that it was all making me happy, but you know the routine. A new purchase gives you a short term hit, like a drug addict injecting heroin, but very soon it wears off, and you’re looking for the next hit. Perhaps you relate to that.
Well, there’s only one way I’ve discovered to break the addiction. Start giving a good chunk of it away. When someone suggested that to me, it was an absolutely abhorrent idea. I remember when I first became a Christian, contemplating the idea of tithing, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. That’s when I realised what a terrible grip my money had on me. I didn’t own it, it owned me.
Truly, the only solution is to start giving some of it away. Not all of it – you need something to live on. But enough of it to cost you something, to make you go without something you really want. Because what that does, is that it changes your heart; it sets you free from the addiction.
Here is that biblical truth, from the first fundraiser recorded in the Bible:
The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to bring me gifts. You will accept gifts for me from everyone who is willing to give.” (Exodus 25:1-2)
In the original Hebrew it reads, “from every man whose heart moves him to give”. You see, God knows that our hearts are attached to our wallets. That’s why He encourages us to open our wallets and give generously to His work, because He knows … that that one act will change our hearts.
Let’s be perfectly clear about this. God isn’t sweating on your next donation. He doesn’t need your money. What He wants is to set you free.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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