God and Money

 

Do you ever hear people talk about money? They may use sayings when they speak about money. A penny saved is a penny earned. All that glitters is not gold. As poor as a church mouse. Born with a silver spoon in your mouth and so on. There are hundreds of sayings about money, which teach us money’s value and how we can use it to better people’s lives.

Most of the time people talk about how little or much money they have; how someone cheated them out of money or how they got a deal; how expensive something is; how the government wastes money; or how well their money is doing or not doing. My favorite is when an athlete is offered more money than he has ever made, and he says that he prayed about it, and God helped him make his decision to take the money.

We all need money to live, but some people live for money. That is the case in today’s Gospel (Luke 16:1-15). The Pharisees loved money, and they made fun of Jesus when he said that you cannot serve God and money. He pointed out that the things that most people think are important are worthless as far as God is concerned.

When I hear people talk about money, I think of the The First Commandment: I am the Lord your God; you shall not have other gods before me. I think of that because to me it sounds like some people love money more than they love God. Now, I want you to remember something. You can love money, but money will never love you. God loves you, and you should always love God more than anything or anyone.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.