Daily Devotional: The Love of Money

Hebrews 13:5

5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

An important scripture in this day and time, for this spirit (the love of money) is pervasive and moves its evil freely about the land, choking the life from the people. Truly, we love money. It is an idol, amongst many other idols, but it may be the most prevalent.

When you turn on your TV, it is difficult to avoid this idea of want, for they show us products and services that we can pay for or possess. We think we need these things to enhance our living. But I'm telling you, everything we want, we do not need.

Money, of course, is a necessity to live in this world. Don't be mistaken, however; this doesn't make it the "everything". God is our all and all. We must not forget that he supplies us with the ability to earn. Make sure that we have separation between the two, the thing created and the creator. We owe nothing to money, but we owe all to God.

"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's... ". With or without money, remember that God is there for you. Therefore, don't misuse it, and make it just what it is: a means to procure goods and not a reason to live! The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, my friends. Use wisdom to discern how to use it to glorify God and live with love.

May God bless you today!

Amen.

Paralysis

There are things that eat at you. Things that strip away your soul, bit by terrified bit, swallowing it piece by delightful piece. These issues wait for times of weakness, where we feel lost and uncentered. This is when they do the most damage. It's not like we can do anything. We've already primed our lives for the killing stroke: we can only but await the agony that comes with it.

I allow myself to lose a battle that should already have been won. I follow the weak routes of life and gather the softness that cripples me little by little, smoothing the rough edges of my soul that were never meant to be tempered. I am killing my desires, crushing my soul. Bleeding it dry, as the greatest enemy I have ever known. I am living on my knees.

I see men that have taken life and made it but a toy. They revel in it and make it obey them, or so it seems. So it looks. I can't understand the madness as it is, yet they have somehow done much more than I can. They have conquered something and claimed ownership. I find myself becoming a coward.

I am beckoned to a place of majesty, a kingship, that cannot be granted to anyone. It must be snatched or taken. I must prove that I am the one that deserves such glory. I must make this life mine and shape it so that it defines my dreams.

May God see me through. I need His strength to conquer this personalized paralysis. It's a blight, a sickening darkness that clouds my mind and casts a shade over the light in my soul.

Comatose

Slipping into an emotional coma. Seemed to be drained of what little remained in the first place. I try to explain to myself that there is an underlying message for it all and it probably is. I would like to think that giving it my best is what I have done. Don’t know how to manage loving when loving seems to be returned to the sender like mail that went to the wrong house. Nothing changes, nothing stays the same. It’s a cycle that I seem to be drawn into, undoing what has been done, walking around a path that ends up at the same wall I just climbed over. Sadness pours like a fountain.

Don’t cry for me, I am awaiting closure. Not so much more I can take. God asks me to have patience, and to ignore my pride, which I do. Pride is the offspring of the Ego, and they are both monsters, so much that I don’t know which is worse. Sadness.
My eyes dream of something I remembered and possibly lost again. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s much more than a man such as myself can even hope to accomplish.

God grants you what you need in order to get over. It may need to end in order to get over. And if that’s His plan, I’m good. I’m fine with it.