I use to be terrible with money. I’m not saying that I’m the best with money now but believe me when I say I am better! At one point in my life I blew through over $20,000 in only a few months with nothing to show for it but maybe a few pair of shoes. My husband will say that I blew through more and he is probably right. I had no idea what the word stewardship meant. I just knew that if I wanted to live the good life I needed to make money and spend money. Again, a dang fool.

As I began growing in my personal relationship with God, He has been teaching me about money, generosity, and wealth. I have realized that there is not one thing, not even one, that God can not teach us. Anyhow, I digress. He began to show me why, even though we made plenty, money would go faster than it came. See I had this mentality that my husbands money was our money and my money was my money. Yeah, that didn’t work too well, for many different reasons. But for the sake of this devotional I am only going to focus on one reason it did not work, my love for money.

1 Timothy 6:9-10

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

This was me!!! For most of my life, I felt I was a burden on the people who cared for me. As a result, I vowed that I would never be dependent on anyone. How was I going to do this? By having money. I went in to hustle mode. Before my marriage, I worked two jobs until I found one paying more than both. I fail into the trap and the consequences are real. I am still dealing with the consequence of the many foolish and harmful desires. I thank God for pulling me out of ruin and destruction.

I have learned the value of seeking God above riches. 1 Timothy 6:6-8 says, Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. 8 So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

Questions:

Do you love money or God? You can have both but you can’t love both.

Where do you place your security?