“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?” Matthew 6:24-25 (NLT)
You know sometimes I can be a little slow in reading the Bible and tying together what God is telling me but the other day, as I listened to these verses, I had a revelation. It’s always made sense to me that you can’t serve money and God. Money will almost always win. Money is not bad but we have a really hard time with our love of money and the life we can live if we have it.
I get that. But this time I heard the connection between worrying about things and the connection to money. Jesus says “You can’t have two masters. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” Then he goes on to say “That is why I tell you not to worry.” Wait. What?
What do the two have to do with each other? Then this tiny little thought started forming in my brain (Thank you, Holy Spirit). If I am worried about everyday life, about how the bills are going to be paid, how the car will be fixed, what is going to happen if I lose my job, I am worrying about money.
My focus suddenly shifts from God will provide to I must provide. I must have enough money to answer all of these questions. I must figure out how I am going to get the money to take care of life.
Notice two things. First, the primary person in charge in these sentences is me, not God. Second, I have shifted my concerns from living my life in a way that glorifies God to living my life to take care of me (not others). One usurps the other.
When we worry about these things, we are basically not trusting God to do what he said he would do, provide. Our complete focus needs to be on trusting that he is there and he will take care of it. It is super easy to slip into worry mode. I know it is for me. But when I go down that path, I need to stop, remember who God is and how much he loves me. I need to readjust my worship.