The Alpha of Mammon or Money Matters

UV 3087/10000 The Alpha of Mammon or Money
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Luke 16 v 13

Money , it is said, is a good servant but a bad master. Therefore, we are to love and serve God while we make money our servant. Scripture warns us in no uncertain terms that the love of money is the root of evil. Hence, though we need not hate or despise money even as we are not to hate or despise our servants, we should ensure that the love of money does not enter our hearts. A sign that we do not love money is when we are contented with what the Lord has provided for us and we do not spend an undue amount of time either relishing the abundance of money we possess or worrying about insufficient money.
Our priority must be the Lord, His kingdom and His righteousness. Once we are so focussed on the Lord as our Master and Provider, He will provide whatever we need in our lives. Hence, either our sense of security or lack of it should not be hinging on the amount of money we have access for. We need to be thankful that our needs are met. We should not be greedy or desire an inordinate quantum of money. We should open our hands to help others in the kingdom and in the wider world who are needy. There is nothing wrong in earning more money but the more we earn, the more we should give to the needy among us.

Learning to invest money in the righty kinds of investments is not ungodly. Instead, the parable of talents narrated by Jesus talks about four servants whose faithfulness and wisdom were tested in how they handled the sum of money given to them by their master. The Lord in fact will bless our money so that it gets more mileage than the money that is earned in wrongful ways. We should be careful in the way we spend money, not spending it in such a way that it is either wasteful or merely to show off in lavishness. The Lord expects us to be generous to the poor and needy, to fellow believers who are in need for a kingdom cause or for their own family needs. When we give generously and often, the hold of money on our lives and hearts is loosened and broken.