Day 24

The myth is that money is a source of contentedness, and it isn’t. If we are not content without money, we will not be content with money.

“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”  — I TIMOTHY 6:10

Money is a commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange. We set values according to it, and the more we have the more ability we have to change our lives and those of others. There is nothing wrong with money in itself, for it is an essential part of society and commerce, and can wield great power. 

But though money is a wonderful servant, it can become a cruel master. Paul warns that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  In fact, it is idolatry. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:5-6, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: …evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” It is one of the great idols of our time. The desire to possess and accumulate is based on an illusion that the more we have the more content we will be. The reality is: The more we have the more we have to look after, the more we have to look after, the more we can lose, the more we can lose the more worried we become about losing it! So the very thing we thought would make us secure actually makes us insecure!

The antidote is contentedness, which is a continuous virtue in Scripture. Our contentedness is never found in material things. I have seen people in poverty who live with a deep sense of contentedness, and I have seen people who live in luxury and are thoroughly discontented. The myth is that money is a source of contentedness, and it isn’t. If we are not content without money, we will not be content with money. 

Our deepest contentedness is found in God – hence Hebrews 13:5 tells us, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’.” It is the active presence of God in our lives that leaves us content.