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Matthew 6:24<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u201cNo one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n1 Timothy 6:9-10<\/span>\u00a0 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.<\/span>\u00a0 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
When you read the word\u00a0materialism<\/em>, what images come to mind? Maybe you think of billionaires vacationing on the French Riviera or lounging around in their New York City penthouses. Or maybe you think of somebody who has no interest in spiritual things–they\u2019re too busy making money or spending money to have time for God. \u00a0 We tend to think of materialism as the opposite of spirituality. In fact,\u00a0materialism<\/em> is defined as \u201ca preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things.\u201d But I would argue that materialistic people are not unspiritual. We all have a spiritual hunger inside us. Materialistic people simply satisfy that hunger in a different way–instead of pursuing God, they pursue money and possessions. \u00a0 That\u2019s why the apostle Paul said greed \u201camounts to idolatry\u201d (Colossians 3:5). Idolatry is worshiping anything or anyone other than the true God. When we look to money rather than God to satisfy our needs, money becomes our god. Jesus made the same point in Matthew 6:24: \u201cNo one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.\u201d \u00a0 One reason God hates idolatry is that chasing after false gods can lead us to harm. That\u2019s certainly true of materialism. One writer said, \u201cHumans have a particularly strong and, at times, irrational obsession with possessions. Every year, car owners are killed or seriously injured in their attempts to stop the theft of their vehicles–a choice that few would make in the cold light of day. It\u2019s as if there is a demon in our minds that compels us to fret over the stuff we own, and make risky lifestyle choices in the pursuit of material wealth. I think we are possessed.\u201d \u00a0 Whether we have a lot or a little, many of us are possessed by our possessions–and the result can be disaster. Materialism robs us of the abundant life God wants us to experience both now and in eternity. Discover how to conquer the mountain of materialism by putting money in its proper perspective and learning to be content. (Jeffress)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 6:24\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNo one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 1 Timothy 6:9-10\u00a0 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many … Continue reading “72.a. Matthew 6:24\u00a0\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200244"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200247,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200244\/revisions\/200247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}