Day 36: The Heart's Position on Money
/The devotion today centered on Money. Of all the things I could write and talk about, money would be among the very least favored. I’m writing this out of commitment to my commitment of writing from these devotions. Introverts winning the space yesterday was a sidebar, really, but that’s because it was on my mind. If I skipped over this it would be out of sheer avoidance.
I used to be on the leadership team at my church in North Carolina. I LOVED it. I loved the team, I loved leading people through the church’s Growth Track, I loved talking about Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit and faith and disappointment and hope and the cross. The only part I never jived with was the week slated for talking about money.
Eeesh.
I’ll never tell a person what they need to do with their money. That’s so far out of my lane. Still, for every cycle of people who came through Growth Track, it would get kind of squishy when we started talking about money. People immediately feel defensive if they feel like they’re not tithing enough; or they act passive about it because they don’t want to deal with shame that might pop up when they consider the fact that they’re not tithing what the pastor says they should tithe. Others feel shame for how little they make; others still feel shame about how much they make.
Friends..
Money is important, yes. What is more important, which Jesus says quite a few times, is your heart’s position. “Her heart was in the right place” is a pacifying adage that really just means “Good idea but bad choice.” That’s not the same as having our heart in a position that points to the Messiah, because that kind of position can only do us good. Right? I think so, anyway.
I know when I’ve had to check my heart, I ask myself some good questions. There was a friend I wanted to be friends with long before we considered ourselves more than acquaintances. To me, at the time, she was a Cool Kid. You know what I mean. People were drawn to her, nobody didn’t like her, etc. So I had to check my heart. Was I pursuing friendship because I wanted to sit at the Cool Kid table? Or because I saw a genuine friendship forming? Spoiler alert: The latter; our hearts are connected for sure and I’m so grateful for her place in my life! But I know I feel better about our friendship because I checked that at the beginning.
So what questions can I ask myself about money? These are a few I pondered this morning…
Where is my heart pointed? Is it pointed above, where the Messiah is (Col. 3:1)?
Am I storing up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21), like I talked about on Day 21?
Do I know in my deepest self that everything in my possession could disappear in a second?
How do I feel about that?
What am I attaching myself to?
Why am I attaching myself to those things?
Do I use my stuff to prove something?
Do I use my stuff to serve?
That’s where I like to go with the money talk. Variations of: Are we using it well? How are we using it well? Could we be using it better?
Today, may you let the Holy Spirit check your heart on all things money-related. Where there is a clean spirit, may you feel abundantly blessed and favored. Where there is room for improvement, may you first know that God’s love for you is not based on anything but being a human created in His image, and may you then allow yourself to be pruned for the better.
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