Money, Money, Money
Posted Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Last night we finished up our last Deep meeting of the quarter with the 2nd part of a 2 part series on Money. The two texts of Scripture were:
“Keep your character free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
- Hebrews 13:5-6″Some pretend to be rich, yet have nothing;
others pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth.”
-Proverbs 13:7
We talked about our problem - not primarily with money, but with our love of it. About how we pretend to be rich by spending more than we need, or as is often the case for college students, spending more than we have in the form of credit card debt. Did you know that:
- • College students pay over $231 billion, just in school-related expenses
• That the average cost of college increases at twice the rate of inflation
• That about 50% of recent college graduates have student loans, most averaging over $10,000
• and that, in addition, the average college graduate is saddled with $7,000 in credit card debt.
It then made a lot of sense why Hebrews, among other passages, warns us to be free from the love of money, since it only breeds enslavement and entrapment to our lives.More than the simple financial wisdom, though, was the beauty from Hebrews about how our freedom from loving money relates to our love affair with God. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” - God is loyal to us; God’s got our back. Our financial realities and material needs are not a surprise to God, nor somehow less spiritual. “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear” - God is good, he takes care of our needs. The great news is that God knows what we need, and he wants us to lean on him in that confidence.