How White Are My Knuckles?

One of my very favorite things about coming home is joining our Sunday School class! God used it over Christmas break to speak simply and profoundly to me, and things hasn't changed a bit.... He still knows how to speak to my innermost being through the truth of the Word shared in Sunday school.

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hat the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

Today's passage: Matthew 6:19-24

Today's discussion question: Can I serve God and money at the same time?

We always have really great discussions in the "college and career/young married" class. I didn't realize it at first, but this one came at the most vital time possible. My loving God knows exactly what I need to hear!

As a kid, it was easy to feel like I had the world at my fingertips. I dreamt about traveling, read missionary biographies and remarked how awesome it would be to go there and to be used by God in that capacity.

But, as I grew up, I gradually began to realize that as much as I hate to admit it, money makes the world go 'round... Without it, I couldn't hope to have even such a staple desire such as an apartment or an education. And I certainly started to realize that to travel halfway around the world and be planted in another culture isn't as financially scott-free as it might sound.

Now that it comes down to the wire, I'm making these life-altering decisions, beginning to pray about where I will student teach and what direction God would have for my life beyond college (Yes, there IS life beyond college :-)

Sunday school challenged me, on what am I basing my decisions?

It's easy to read verse 24 and think. "I'm not rich compared to alot of people. I don't live in a mansion; I can't go out and buy just whatever I want on a whim. I am surely not serving 'mammon.'"

But am I making decisions based on the temporal or the eternal?

Suddenly it seems so complicated. I realize I don't have all the money I would need to lead even an ordinary life, let alone an extraordinary life for God. I have been seriously second-guessing whether the Lord would have me to be in missions, but WHY?

Is it because there won't be a taco bell down the street? Because there might be lizards or poisonous eight-legged arachnids joining me in my bed? Because I won't be able to hop on a plane and visit home for the weekend when I need a little break from life? Those things are easy to give up in theory - when you're ten years old they make missions work sound all that much more exciting. :-)

But I'm realizing that when you go halfway around God's world carrying God's message, these things become a reality.

And it all comes back to that verse nestled in Matthew 6 - among the reminders to not worry, and to not be a hypocrite. (ironic isn't it? :-)

So it comes down to the question, will I serve God with my life?

Or will I serve the "creature comforts"?

Will I be slave to all those things that will burn up in the blink of an eye someday?

Or will I see souls won to salvation through the power of Christ in me?

Father, I pray that you would give me eyes to see life in your perspective. Help me not become so rich that I neglect to trust in you, as in Proverbs 30:7-9, or Deuteronomy 6:10-15.

You know the heart of your people. After all this training to trust you in the wilderness, the Children of Israel turned aside to other gods soon after they stepped into Canaan, the land of plenty. Let me not forget where my blessings of plenty come from.

As in Wyoming over the summer, when I experienced firsthand the inspiring mindset of the people, I pray that you would help me to realize that everything I have is given to me by your grace, and for the purpose of bringing glory to you.

May I never hold these things in a white-knuckle grip.... at the expense of obeying you and gaining treasure in Heaven.

Where does my heart truly lay?

Please develop within me a missionary heart, Father. You were willing to give your very own Son. Send me to proclaim that message. And don't let money or comfort be relevant at all in my decision.

Lord I needed this.