No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
Matthew 6:24-26
In my Bible, there is a separation added between verse 24 and 25 (the first and second paragraphs seen here). It's fine. This is just how they decided to organize what amounts to a very long teaching with lots of parts. However, if we're reading the whole teaching we see some very important transitional words in verse 25. "That is why I tell you..." In other words, the thing Jesus said about serving money has everything to do with his continuing teaching about worry.
If we're honest, we might admit to cringing a little when we hear Jesus refer to money as a master that people can serve. If we're honest. After all, we serve Jesus! We would never want to think about serving something as dirty and man-made and materialistic as money! But we do, don't we? We trip up on this one all the time. Even if we're someone who doesn't have much money. If we're honest. Jesus' correlation between serving money and worry proves it. In fact, those who don't have much might fall into this form of slavery even more.
I'm going to be honest. Then I'm going to tell you about some real-life miracles.
I grew up in church. My dad was a pastor and I heard preachers teach on tithing and giving many times. But I was just like everyone else. I was afraid to really give. Even after I was a real adult with a real job, I struggled to give this part of my life to Jesus. And, I struggled right along financially. You could say I was struggling on many levels. I knew God's word but I didn't believe Him. Not really. I would justify my disobedience by saying things like "Well, I give so much of my time to God and the church. That's my tithe." or "My singing is my way of giving to God" or "How can I give that amount to God when I owe this much on this bill? That's just not good stewardship! After all, doesn't God want my family to come first?" And, I continued to struggle. Bills were a struggle. The budget never worked out. Struggle, struggle, struggle.
Despite my private excuses, I could never shake the deep conviction that I had never fully given this part of my life to God and that really meant I didn't believe Him.
One day, and I don't know when it was, I decided to obey. Period. Our family gave 10% of our income and we did for years. I began to realize that even though on paper it looked like we were over-extending ourselves, somehow we always had enough and often we even had more! How was this happening? We weren't finding anonymous checks in our mailbox (although I know people who have prayed and had this happen). We weren't getting a raise. If anything we even took some income hits over the years. Still, there has always been enough and sometimes even more. Now, that really doesn't make sense!
We now, as a family, give more than 10% to the church and have for a few years now. And, let me tell you, in this earthly kingdom, in this country, it makes NO sense. In fact, I bet a financial advisor would laugh at us and call us foolish. But, guess what, there has always been enough. Always. Here's what happens...
One time someone gave us a leftover leaky bottle of detergent from a college detergent drive that the church did. No one wanted it because it was sticky and leaky but I took it and put it on the top shelf of our laundry room. Months later it was one of those weeks where you run out of all the big stuff at the same time. We were out of detergent and I couldn't spare the $7 to buy some. Then I spotted that sticky bottle of detergent on the back of the shelf. See? God knew, months before.
I recently felt stretched financially. I was really working hard to get the budget tighter and plan for an upcoming trip this summer. I knew I had a lot of little expenditures coming up that couldn't be avoided. Then I got an email from a company offering to refund something that my kids accidentally bought electronically 2 years ago. Seems that others had that problem with their kids buying stuff and they were reaching out to refund whoever wanted to submit a claim. I did and suddenly I got a message saying I would be refunded $47 for something that happened years ago! Totally unexpected. You may not think that's all that amazing but I call that a miracle.
We live in an expensive housing market. This is no news to you. Last fall we were supposed to move and we looked at house after house and they just amounted to gross after gross to the tune of about $1500 a month. "Here, I'll offer to rent this dingy dump to you and you give me $1500 in return. And on top of that, you better hurry and put 2 months down now because someone else will get it tomorrow!" The search seemed impossible. Because we wanted to be good stewards of our money and not over-extend ourselves we started making arrangements to settle on a condo with no yard and 2 parking spaces. Not exactly the best place to host a church cookout but we saw no other open door. Then God spoke. "Do you think this is my best for you? That it's the best I can do?" I decided to make a private list: a list of all the needs and wants that I thought were right for our family in a house, even down to a screen porch and a counter with a bar for my kids to eat breakfast at. Long story short-- God gave us a house, even in our price range! And it was a crazy story. As we walked through (for the first time) the day we signed the lease I almost cried and laughed all at the same time. EVERYTHING on my list was there, even down to the screen porch and the counter with a bar.
See, I think miracles sometimes look like this: an outrageously good deal on deodorant because God knows you're going to run out in a month even though you haven't even thought about it...a friend goes on a trip and needs someone to give their soon expiring milk and eggs to, just before your car gets a flat tire and you have to choose between groceries and a new tire in the budget...the dentist gives your kids one of those little packs with a free toothbrush and travel toothpaste in it and you haven't even realized they're about to run out in the next couple of weeks, the same week rent is due...
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
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