Ugly Money
Luke 16:14-15 The Pharisees were listening to all these things. They criticised Jesus because they all loved money. Jesus said to them, "You make yourselves look good in front of people. But God knows what is really in your hearts. What people think is important is worth nothing to God.”
The truth is often incredibly inconvenient, which is why, I guess, we so often want to ignore it. But the longer you try to ignore it, the more you find your life, heading in the wrong direction.
When there’s a disconnect between who someone pretends to be on the outside, and what’s really going on in their hearts, on the inside, sooner or later (generally, sooner) that becomes an ugly thing. We have a name for people like that; we call them … “hypocrites”. And it’s not pretty.
Jesus has a way of putting His finger on our hypocrisy. And the subject that He spoke about and taught about more than any other was our love of money.
Let’s be honest, in this complicated area, this tension in our hearts between money and God, between wealth on the one hand, and forsaking all to follow Jesus on the other, it’s very easy to find ourselves with a divided sense of loyalty. And when you’re being pulled in one direction, and then the other, well, you just can’t keep going like that. Something has to give.
One option of course, is to start telling yourself that since God loves you He wants to bless you. But there’s a big difference between blessing and pampering. This is how Jesus dealt with this subject, when He was addressing some well-known hypocrites of His day:
Luke 16:14-15 The Pharisees were listening to all these things. They criticised Jesus because they all loved money. Jesus said to them, “You make yourselves look good in front of people. But God knows what is really in your hearts. What people think is important is worth nothing to God.”
Don’t be deceived. God is not in the business of pampering His children. What matters to Him, is what’s going on in your heart.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Lesley
Keep up telling God’s Word!
Keep up telling God’s Word!