Trust God, or money?

LET GOD TAKE CARE OF YOU

I might as well start this off with some history, I haven't always believed in Jesus... I knew that there was something bigger than me, but didn't know what or who it was specifically. Then one day I met some people, who I now call my brothers and sisters. People who showed me the things that Jesus taught in the four gospel accounts.

So out of the four, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I started with Matthew. I looked at one of the most famous places where Jesus gave some of his teachings, "The Sermon on the Mount". Everything he said caught my attention; one, because I never heard/read it before, and two, because I saw mostly EVERYONE in the world not doing what he said, especially me! I wont go into crazy detail about all his teachings in the passage, so I'll stick with just one because it relates to what I wanna talk about. Letting God take care of us.

The one teaching I want to bring up is, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24. I had one big question after reading this, what is mammon?! I know other translations even say money; so like anyone else, I asked the people around me what they thought, and I also did some research myself. Come to find out that mammon is "material things or possessions" (a.k.a. the things that money buys). Now knowing what mammon means, I needed to find a way to put this teaching of Jesus into practice and what doing that looks like, but how?

After that verse, Matthew 6:24, Jesus started to talk about our needs as humans. Food and clothing, and how we should go about those things. He said " Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which one of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:25-33.

Now I had a much clearer picture as to what Jesus was talking about, "serving two masters". And I got some ideas to how I can put Jesus' teaching into practice. One idea being, to stop working a 9-5, working at a job to earn a paycheck after a week or two takes up so much time. The time spent at a work place can vary of course, the minimum being 40 hours a week; I don't know about you but flipping burgers or working behind a desk was boring anyway, so now taking a step back to look at it. NO WAY I'm wasting all that time, doing something I hate! Even if I did like a 9-5, I would have to ask myself why I'm really there. Is it to truly help people, or is it just because I know I'm gonna get paid; so I can buy clothes, food, and whatever the heck else I think I need.

Jesus was and still is trying to get us to see that we don't need to be doing tasks that amount to nothing, just to get food and clothes; or to have the government provide for us. He said "Seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33. Get busy preaching his teachings, in other words the gospel; then he will take care of anything you need! There's no need for us to work for paychecks, or work to earn food; why not let God be our provider like it should have been from the beginning. Why not work for love by helping people in need for nothing in return and by giving them the teachings of Jesus, the only reason we're on this earth is to serve one another in love like God has and is serving us!

So if you "believe" in God, the next time you get a check; ask yourself is that what you should be doing. Most importantly, ask God if that's what he wants you to do; after all if we love Jesus we'll obey him. John 14:15