This verse has always stuck with me, serving as a reminder to pursue God above all else. But if we’re honest with ourselves, how many of us really do this on a daily basis? I’m not going to talk about time in prayer or reading the Bible; rather, I’m going to talk about a topic that we can be resistant to discuss.
Before we go any further, please know this. This post is not a lecture. I’m not going to critique how you spend your money, or suggest that you spend it on things other than what you currently do. This is not a post about tithing and what you should be giving. This is not a post that is stating how money is a horrible thing.
What I am going to do is challenge you to think.
Pretend you have been given a random, monthly spending statement to review. Although you’re not aware of it, the statement is a reflection of your own personal spending this month. What are some of the things that you would find on that list?
As you think about this, I want to ask you something else. How large of a role do these things play in your life?
This is an uncomfortable topic to read about, I get it. It is super uncomfortable to write about this as well.
But honestly, I would not be writing about it if God was not convicting me of this in my personal life.
I think of my own personal spending these past few months. I have a budget app where I am able to budget my monthly income, and it has been an incredible resource to have! It allows me to track every transaction I make, and it ensures that I am sticking to my budget allocation (bills, tithing, gas, subscriptions, eating out, personal spending, etc.). When I think of my personal spending budget, I can pinpoint consistent things that the majority of my money goes towards.
With a lot of the things that we purchase, there is nothing bad about them in themselves. But if we think more deeply about these things, we can see how large of a role they have played in our lives. Doing an evaluation of where our money goes leads us to do an evaluation of where our hearts are.
As mentioned previously, there is nothing bad about money itself or some of the things we use it for in our personal spending. However, if we are not careful, good things can become something bad. I discovered that I had elevated things that I never should have. I aggressively pursued them, and to some extent, they drove some of my recent actions.
But most of all, these things turned into distractions in my walk with Christ.
Like I said earlier, I’m not here to critique your spending. I’m not telling you to increase your giving at church. I’m not asking you to stop buying things for personal use.
I simply desire for us to be a generation of women who, although we can enjoy the simple things in life that God has blessed us with, do not turn these things into distractions in our walk with Christ. I pray that God will open our hearts so that we can evaluate ourselves, and I hope that you will pray for me in this area as well.
Wow! You just hit me right between the eyes. This spoke to me in an important and significant way. Thank you.