We live in a world that says that our master is money. That means we should order our lives around having money, acquiring things, building our possessions and we begin to get ambitious to serve the god of money. But the Lord said that you cannot serve God and money; you will either hate one and love the other, or love one and hate the other. Our children watch us and do you know who they think our God is? The one we serve and the one they see us put our time and energy to; that's the God they will see. You can't have two masters; you have to choose who your master is. "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Luke 16:13

            You need to determine the object of your affection. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, the Lord gave the Israelites a warning and said to them there would be a day when they will prosper; and when they prosper and settle down and are living comfortably with plenty to eat that’s the time to be very careful. "In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.” Deut. 8:16-17

            The Lord tells us to be very careful with money because we can fall in love with it. The Lord said that the love of money is the root of every kind of evil. It's corrupting and it will destroy you. So He said that the right commandment is to love Him, to have an affectionate relationship with Him; a two-way relationship where you're interacting on your problems and how you're dealing with your life and all the financial problems and stress that you may have. And He will love you back and help you with your finances. But if you start to love money, you'll get trapped in man's economy and it will lead you to destruction. In fact the Lord said, every time you read in the Bible that somebody falls in love with money, the result is never good. It's severe! It creeps into our attitudes invisibly. He said to the Israelites that the day you fall in love with money, I will destroy you, because you're saying to the whole world that money is a better god than God Almighty.   

            If you're going to live in God's economy, you have to answer this question: “Is all that we have earned, deserved or is it all a gift from God?”  Your attitude will change as you begin to see yourself not as an owner, not as an entitled person, but as one who is grateful and appreciative of what God has given you. Another point to consider is this: what is the reason for your wealth? Did God give you money to live independent of others and to try to insulate your life from problems? Or did God give you wealth in order to serve other people? Take the risk to invest yourself in God's Kingdom.

            The next opposing force between man's economy and God's economy is that we tend to want to insulate ourselves from problems, instead of using it for God's purposes. Know that every person on earth will be given a problem that money cannot solve. We tend to think that money will solve all problems and if we just had more, then our problems will go away but there's no case of that ever happening. Every person is made to be aware that he is totally dependent upon God to solve our problems, that He is more important than money. Money will not make your problems go away; it is not security, it is only to be used to fulfill God's purposes for your life. As Acts 20:35 puts it, "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive."

            We also believe that personal fulfillment and success comes through money. In God's economy, success is not based on personal fulfillment; it's based on being a trustworthy steward. We're living in a temporary hotel room and we're going to check out and He's going to ask us if we did His business, did we use the resources He gave us for ourselves just to have fun and be comfortable and impressive. Man's economy is temporal; we all check out and leave it all behind, and then we have to report how we did with His resources. In God's economy, the goal is not to benefit self, but to follow God's way.

            Is there a chance that you are spending your life on things that do not matter? Every day that we live, we spend our energy either on man's economy, or God's economy. When you go to work, you can serve the Lord by demonstrating God's faithfulness with the way you work. It’s important that we be a worker of integrity, honest, not participating in bribes or corruption even if it costs you and lose business. Remember that we are to be living a life that counts as a testimony to Jesus Christ. It starts with when we say, “Lord, I want my life to matter for all eternity.”