Who is Your Master?

Day 21

Who Is Your Master?

When Adam and Eve threw down God from the throne of their hearts that sad day long ago, when they listened to the whispering hiss of darkness and followed its lead all the way down to the “knowledge of good and evil”, darkness moved in and took up residence in the human heart. 

Because the throne of the human heart never sits empty. Either God sits on His throne within our beating hearts, or something else does, usurping His place on that throne, emptying our human heart of His presence.

This is where Jesus starts, this day on this breezy hillside, going  straight to the heart of the matter…

‘No one can serve two masters.’ Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’

Matthew 6:24

There is no room in the human heart for more than one Lord. You cannot have your foot in God’s Kingdom and also keep the other foot in the kingdoms of this world. And the kingdoms of this world do not serve us, but enslave us, eventually leaving us driven and unsatisfied.

‘Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.’

Ecclesiastes 5:10

‘But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’

1 Timothy 6:6-10

Our human relationship with money is usually complicated. It can be the beginning of the end of us, wandering us off God’s path and piercing us with grief, stress and worry.

It is not a coincidence that Jesus’ challenging words about money in His Sermon on the Mount are followed closely by His exhortation against being anxious. Our desire for money is so often fuelled by our underlying anxieties around financial security… Will we have enough? Will we be okay? In fact the following nine verses Jesus mentions anxiety around money six times with three of those times being the specific command “Do not be anxious”.

The problem Jesus is highlighting in this and the previous two passages is the triple habit humans have of storing up treasure for ourselves, looking at the world through ungenerous eyes of scarcity and self interest and then enslaving ourselves to our own self sufficiency treadmills – serving money rather than God and His Kingdom. These three focuses all fuel human anxiety.  These three focuses all draw our gaze away from God.

When I was pregnant with our first daughter, Zoë we were living on a missionary budget with our income coming solely from the supporting community God had placed around us. (Ministry doesn’t usually make money so must be supported by people who believe deeply in the mission, but can’t be there on the ground themselves).

But, as most missionaries will testify, there are seasons where a faith income gets tested. Where irregular costs put irregular pressure on the slim budget we live on. As Zoë’s arrival drew near, the hospital bill was one of those irregular costs.

We had been told that it was going to cost us $1000 US dollars. Which was exactly one thousand dollars more than we had! But, God is faithful and He provided through His community of believers. A friend contacted us out of the blue and let us know that they were giving us $1000. We were so thankful. And relieved.

We went to the bank to withdraw the money only to discover that instead of $1000 there was $1100 in the account! We took it all out with joy and then went to pay the hospital bill. When we arrived at the hospital we discovered that they had made an error and the bill wasn’t $1000, but actually $1100! God had seen this coming and provided all we needed.

As we walked down the hospital stairs back to our car soon after, I remember talking this over with God. I said “God- why can’t we have more than we need. Why can’t you give us more than enough so we don’t have to worry about the money stretching far enough?” Right away I heard His still small voice speaking to my heart “If you had more than enough, more than you needed, how would you see my hand is with you?”.

Jesus’ transforming initiative, His solution to humankind’s trifold issue of grasping after treasure for ourselves, seeing the world through ungenerous eyes of scarcity and self interest, and then enslaving ourselves to money (all motivated by our underlying anxiety and fear for our survival) is simple…

I am with you.

The next nine verses immediately following Jesus’ exhortation against thinking we can serve both God and money are all about our human anxiety, and particularly anxiety around having what we need. This is not a coincidence. We don’t store us treasure, see the world through a lens of scarcity and enslave ourselves to the money treadmill because we feel secure.

Our anxiety around money is usually, in truth, our anxiety around our own welfare. Greed is another creature, but the fear for our (and our family’s) survival is what usually drags us to our treadmills and chains us to long work hours and furrow-browed balancing and rebalancing of our accounts. It is entirely the normal way of things in this world for most of us to worry about having enough money (especially in a cost of living crisis!).

Working responsibly and earning a wage is not wrong. However, making striving after money our master and letting our stress about money enslave our hearts and usurp God from His throne there, is what Jesus is challenging us about. When our financial security is the driving force for our lives, we work on our own survival rather than working on His Kingdom and presence with us… and we work ourselves into the ground.

Jesus transforming initiative is simple: Look around you. I am with you!

In the next verses Jesus says… Look! See! ‘Look at the birds of the air…  See how the flowers of the field grow…’

Open Your eyes! I am with you! 

In fact, the whole message Jesus has been sharing from this mountainside, the entire picture He has been painting for His listeners all along is this: God is with you. He is your Heavenly father. His Kingdom is here now. Don’t live as though you are unseen orphans alone in this world. Don’t live in stingy-eyed scarcity. Open your  eyes wide to the presence of God’s Kingdom life with you now, live wide eyed-alert to His presence with you. He is looking after you. You don’t have to hustle. Trust Him. Live as though you belong to a different Kingdom. Because you do.

Seek this Kingdom first, and everything else you need will follow.

You cannot serve this King and also enslave yourself to anything else- especially money.

Because its never really about money. Its about who sits on the throne of our human heart. Our anxieties, drivenness and survival mechanisms, or this King of Love.   

Jesus’ answer and transforming initiative is simple: Look around you. I am with you ! Don’t replace Me with anything else.

‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

‘Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.’

Hebrews 13:5

 

 

 

Explore Further

Journaling The Journey 

‘No one can serve two masters’.

We can tell what ‘masters’ us (what sits on the throne of our heart) by the things that we spend our time, thoughts and energy on.

Reflect for a moment on what you spend most time, thought and energy on.

Is God sitting on the throne of your heart? Is Jesus your master? Or something else?

How would you describe your relationship with money?

 

Todays Mountainside photograph was taken in the Jamaican Blue Mountains, Jamaica.