“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

Matthew 6:19-21

Dear God, this is one of those verses we talk about a lot as humans. Even if we don’t know these particular verses we will try to teach our children that there are more important things than money. But do we really believe that?

If you read stories of lottery winners, it seems an overwhelming majority end up worse off after winning millions of dollars than they were before when they had little. And yet, a lot of people but lottery tickets hoping to be the one. A lot of people will completely judge how our country is doing based on the stock market’s performance even though there are so many other aspects to a society (crime, Healthcare, foreign relations, etc.) that directly impact people as opposed to this one measure. Even everyday people like me tend to compare ourselves to others financially and try to figure out how we measure up to the person next door. We even cover their money, not realizing that their spiritual life is nonexistent and that they have no peace (I’m not saying rich people can’t have fulfilled lives—I’m saying that we tend to only use their money as our basis for comparing ourselves with them).

Father, I want to turn loose of any love of Money that remains me me. Usually, a good cure for that is to give it away, but what I’m talking about is a little different. I’m not talking about trying to put the stockpiling of money my priority. I’m talking about not letting Money be part of my evaluation regarding how someone or our society is doing. I want to see the world with your eyes. I want to have your wisdom and vision. I want to love with your love.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen