Last night, Garrett and I watched the movie "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas. First off, let me warn you it was a long movie! Haha. No, but in all seriousness I don't know how you can watch this movie and not feel convicted about one thing...our love of money. Whether we have a lot of it or are barely scraping by we all have this desire somewhere in us for more money. How many times have you caught yourself daydreaming about what you would do if you won the lottery? Or have you ever thought to yourself, 'if only we had total financial security, then I would be happy.'
I think we all struggle with this or have at some point. The Bible warns us:
*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
*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 6:10
*“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.” Luke 16:13
*Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. Ecclesiastes 5:10
Notice all of these verses warn us against our own LOVE of money, not money itself. We have to guard our hearts against it and be aware when we start making it an idol.
In the movie, the majority of people are stock brokers. Their lives, hearts, & minds are constantly consumed with how they can make more money. It is EVERYTHING. When one man's company goes under he can't find any other joy in his life, so he commits suicide. This is an extreme, but has happened too many times before and is heart wrenching...
Let's find the joy in our life that is Christ. No matter how little or how much money we have we will be peaceful, we will be full of love, and we will be selfless. Live with meaning and purpose. Things fade away...souls don't.
Excellent! You are right on! It is not the money that is the problem...it is the LOVE of money.
ReplyDeletesm
That's very true. I can think of 2 people I know who tried to kill themselves because of money issues. One was successful. I will say though that when you don't have enough money for the 'basics' it sure can make life stressful.
ReplyDelete