Jun 30

Following our passion in life often takes money. Money is seldom the real pursuit of people; it is what money enables them to do: to pursue their true passion in life, even if that passion is as simple and self-centered as seeking pleasure.

Money is just a means to an end. It is for this reason, perhaps, that Scripture declares the same end result for both believers and unbelievers: Neither will be able to keep their wealth after they die.

"We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it" (1 Tim. 6:7).

To the one in Christ, this truth from Scripture is a small matter. Money to the believer is simply another tool for spreading the knowledge and glory of God to this world, and when life is over, there is no more need for such a tool.

To many unbelievers, however, money is a very different story. They often spend a huge portion of their life devoted to gathering money, so they can spend it on their passions in this life. And when that life and its passions are gone at death, that money disappears along with those passions and the life that enabled them to pursue them.

For one group, the inability to keep wealth is inconsequential; for the other, it means everything. So it is that it is not just whether one keeps something from this world at death, but why it was desired in the first place. God is always more interested in our motives than just our deeds that spring from those motives.

Scripture for today: Isaiah 29:13
Thought for today: The money of this world buys nothing in the next.
Prayer for today: My money is yours, Lord. May I never covet it and lose my life.

JUN 30