Lighthouse Keeper

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and (Mammon) money. Matthew 6:24 ESV

I don’t come from a wealthy family and money was always a struggle. The power bill, the phone bill, groceries and petrol… these were the evening discussions in my household from a young age. Money dominated the agenda in my family. We were scared off it, had limited control of it and were always hoping for a winning Lotto ticket or some crazy windfall. I was always determined that I wasn’t going to live on struggle street.

But live on ‘struggle street’ I did. With no financial literacy I always found I was yoyo-ing between austerity and excess.

I had well paying jobs but never any savings and large credit card and student loan debts. Something had to change and I am very grateful to Pastor Joel A’Bell (formerly of Hillsong) who preached a wonderful offering message on our discomfort around money. My heart was burning. I knew that was me and that my finances weren’t before the Lord. I had tried everything else and decided it was time to start following Biblical principles.

I was a slave to money and it controlled me more than God. I started declaring. Yes, all that Joel Osteen stuff head and not the tail (Deut 28:13) lend and not borrow (Deut 15:6, Prov 22:7) I put the Lord first as my provider and sustainer and not my job or my bank account. I went head-to-head with Mammon in the prayer room to push it down and into the proper place in my life. Money is a tool, God is a God of abundance. I will not lack. I would like to tell you things instantly got better, but they didn’t. Like the widow’s oil, (2 Kings 4:1-7) God requires an empty vessel and the spiritual renovation and renewing of the mind to get the slavery of money off a person is scary(and I believe that’s why most people don’t get there). Money is a spiritual issue first and the battle must be done in prayer and Worship first before there is any tangible result.

You cannot serve God and (Mammon) money

I see a lot of Christians taking pride in the fact that they are poor. Poverty and financial stress is awful and it is not of God. It does not make you more humble or less showy or more spiritual to have a lean bank account. I find Christians living in lack talk about money non-stop. It is their God and they are afraid of Mammon. This scarcity mindset is not of God. It dominates your lives and your conversations and keeps you distracted. It’s important to help people get off struggle street but as the Lord once explained to me “sitting on struggle street with other people doesn’t fix the problem-now I just have two people struggling”.

Make it your ambition to get upwardly mobile and provide for yourself, your family, and your church. Stand on the promises of God in the Bible and declare it over your households. That’s how you loose the grip of money off your lives and put God back at the head where He belongs. And if your heart is burning reading this like mine was, it’s time. Put your letters before the Lord (2 Kings 19:14) and see what He can do for you because He’s just that good.