The Love of Money & Trusting God

Why is it that some of us fail to grow in grace? There are lots of explanations. One I am currently thinking about comes from Jesus’ Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. In it, Jesus tells us that the worries of this world and the deceitfulness of riches “choke out the word” so that it fails to bear fruit (Matthew 13:22). 

When I lost my job due to budget cuts on the heels of the pandemic shutdown, I got scared and experienced this firsthand. One of my first thoughts was, “We’re going to lose our house, and we just bought it! There’s no way we can keep it without my income.” I panicked. My job loss felt like the first domino falling that would end in a financial free fall. My other thought was, “All that money we saved to use as a down payment for our house a year ago will go down the drain.” It took a few days and the prayers of friends near and far for me to get my wits about me, for me to recollect myself and turn my eyes toward Jesus once again. To respond to God with trust. In those moments of panic, I could feel the worries of this life choking out God’s word to me.

This wasn’t the first time I had to trust God to provide for our daily bread. And of course, it likely won’t be the last. One way God provided was through friends who set up a GoFundMe account for our family. The generosity of many people allowed us to pay our mortgage for several months, pay medical bills, and put food on the table until we could figure out what to do. 

Our financial difficulties reminded me that we don’t hear a lot of talk about our love for money, or our penchant for greed, in sermons here in the US. We do hear a lot about stewarding our money.  Indeed, very few of us assume we could fall prey to the deceitfulness of wealth. Me? Love money? Nah. And yet the love of money and “all the choices money affords us,” as an acquaintance once reflected, do deceive us and take our eyes off of Christ. After all, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

Not only might we be unaware of how much the love of money and the deceitfulness of wealth affect us, we are often unaware of how much worry crushes and distracts us—how the worries of this world choke out the fruit of the gospel in our lives. When worry (outside of clinical anxiety and depression), or our attachment to the riches of this world goes unexamined and unrepented of, it will stunt our growth and the gospel may not bear as much fruit in our lives. I am beginning to see this more and more.

Through my experiences, I’ve discovered several practices that bring me perspective and comfort and help me confront the worry and anxiety that threatens to control my thoughts and attitudes. First, to combat worry over money and related fantasies over the problems money can supposedly solve (in other words, “the deceitfulness of wealth”), I follow Jesus’ instructions and consider the birds and the flowers of the field (Matthew 625–34). Through these verses, I am reminded of God’s care. He feeds, clothes, and cares for them; and He will do the same for me. I can trust God. I find myself repeatedly camping out in these verses, meditating on them, sitting with them for days or even weeks. It helps to transform my mind and life (see Romans 12:1 –2). 

In addition, I think about the life of Jesus, how He entrusted Himself to our Father time and time again. Remembering His words and life encourages me to remember all of the ways I have seen God’s faithfulness throughout my own life. Looking back I can see God’s hand time and time again protecting and providing for me and those I love. God has not changed. If He provided in the past, He will provide in the present and the future. 

This leads to a recommitment on my part: I entrust myself and my family to God yet again. In the midst of all this, I contact trusted friends and my pastors to confess my struggles (see James 5:16). I ask them to remember me before God. I listen to their wise counsel and find comfort in their care and concern. Truly, we cannot live the Christian life alone. Nor can we overcome worry and the deceitfulness of wealth without a healthy Christian community. 

Finally, I give thanks to God for everything I do have. Taking inventory of the many things God has provided for me in these moments is a humbling practice. As the list grows, so does my confidence that my heavenly Father has not forgotten me and that I can trust Him with my life and family. 

These practices reorient me to reality and to truth, and set me aright again.

—Written by Marlena Graves. Used by permission from the author.