The SKV

Money Matters (Matthew 6:19-34)

Don’t collect important stuff on earth for your personal use. All stuff on earth breaks down, wears out, is destroyed or is stolen. Instead, if you give to the poor, God will keep the important stuff for you in heaven. There, your stuff never breaks down, wears out, gets destroyed or is stolen. Build up your savings account in heaven—for where you keep your stuff, that’s where your true self is kept.


The eye releases your light to the world around you. If your eye is generous, then we can see the light within you. But if your eye is covetous—desiring to have what others have—then we can know that your whole self is darkened, spiritually dead. Thus, if your enlightenment is pure darkness, your darkening is complete.


No one can truly have two gods he is committed to. In the end, every man will display his love for one god by consistently serving him and he will display his contempt for the other by neglecting service for him. You cannot commit yourself to both the Father God and the god of Wealth.


You might be concerned because giving everything to the poor seems like economic suicide. But listen to me—Don’t even think about your livelihood. Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear. Your life, as a whole, is more than what you stuff in your mouth, isn’t it? And isn’t a living body more than having clothes to wear?


Study the birds. Do they go to stores, work to make money, have good paying jobs? No, they rely on the Father in heaven to feed them. Doesn’t God consider you more than they? And tell me, which one of you increased your quality or quantity of life by being anxious about the basics? And clothes—why bother about being concerned about them? Study wild flowers. You see how they spring up? They don’t haunt retail shops or even thrift stores, but even the richest woman in Beverly Hills isn’t clothed as beautifully as these. So if God provides clothes for flowers that pop up one day and are mowed down the next, surely he will provide for the mustard-seed-faith troupe.


So stop worrying! Stop saying "How can you ask this of us? How can we provide for ourselves? How can we survive?" You are talking like unbelievers—those who don’t know that God provides for them. Your Father knows what you need already. Focus instead on God’s kingdom and accomplishing God’s righteousness, and your boss—the Father—will provide all these basics for you. So stop being concerned about the future. It is enough to be concerned about today’s trouble, and let the future go.

posted by Steve Kimes @ 1:35 PM