Worried About The Money?

Are you are worried about where the money is going to come from. Don’t.

Joshua stated, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15).

Jesus declared, " No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24).

God said, “I am the Lord thy God….Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)

It is clear. We can only serve one master, one God. But we allow our self to become distracted which causes us to be conflicted and in turmoil. One of our biggest distractions is money, or better put, the lack of money.

“Ye cannot serve God and mammon”, said Jesus (Matthew 6:24)

The richest man in the world King Solomon said, “Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” (Proverbs 23:4-5)

But you say, “I’m not trying to get rich. I’m just trying to pay the bills!”

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? ….for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:25,32-33)

Refocus, retool, and reorient yourself towards God.

Look at the major victories scored by the devil when it comes to money and debt.

1. He got your attention off God and refocused elsewhere.

2. The devil has you all balled up, worried and stressed out. This stress produced by worry is potential energy with virtually unlimited capacity and strength. This creates a very volatile and potentially very dangerous scenario.

Add one and two together and they equal the potential perfect storm of sin. How? Since God is no longer the priority, neither will His way be. The way, the truth, and your life has just shifted radically. There is now a new realm of possibilities, since you no longer desire His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The stress and strain of money troubles builds up like a pressure cooker. The new avenues of sin that have availed themselves act as a release valve for that pressure. And there you go, like popcorn in a pot with no lid, shooting off in all different directions, trying to resolve this debt problem by any means. And there’s the devil, loving every minute of it.

Quick fixes often dig deep ditches of destruction and despair. Stop what you are doing right now. We need to reverse engineer this scenario.

First, we must, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

How many people thought, “Humble myself? What does pride have to do with anything?”

Only pride would take a problem out of God’s hands and think it could do better. Peter tells us all to cast all, not some, but all of our anxieties (care) upon God. Why? Because God cares for each and every one of us!

Let’s back up a little bit. The first care (Casting all your “care”…) has its origins in the Hebrew word, “merizo”. It means, “to draw in different directions, distract" (Vine’s). Here we are again, back at the popcorn analogy, firing off in all different directions, all at the same time. This is exactly where the devil wants us to be and acting exactly how he wants us to act.

To refocus us away from money troubles and oriented back to God, Jesus gives us a great metaphor to contemplate.

“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:26-30)

We must understand that while God is in control that, “all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26) and, “nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37), but that we still have a great effect, both negative and positive on all those possibilities. Remember, sin separates, faith restores. There is no promise realized without faith.

“And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58)

“Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:7)

The devil does everything he can to distract us. He knows that the path to death and destruction is not the path of righteousness. Jesus is the way to God and eternal life. The devil is the highway to Hell. We head towards at what we look at. If the devil can distract us from focusing on God and get us to focus on a problem, he can then lead us out of the way of Jesus.

I know that it’s one thing to talk about this while removed from the situation and quite another when facing real debt with its impending consequences. That collection notice or creditor call won’t take faith as a payment. I understand. But go to God and stay there. Give Him your burdens, all of them. And your anxieties, all of them. And don’t take any of them back.

With your faith must come trust, because who knows what avenue God will have you to venture. But just like you are to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30), you are to have the same trust and faith.

Have faith the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength!

Have trust with the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength!

God will always have your best interest at heart, so let Him.

Bill Hitchcock