Monday, July 13, 2015

1 Timothy 6:10-11 -- On Priorities

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness."
1 Timothy 6:10-11


It's easy to get our priorities mixed up in life.  So many things seem important.  Prestige, power, rank, fame, money, popularity... even things like acceptance, love, joy, and physical affection can get us really screwed up if we value them more than anything else.  We might get into drugs looking for a high, or get addicted to something else dangerous to our souls.  Whenever we get into that sort of situation, where we can feel that we want something else more than we want God in our lives, we need to step back and re-evaluate.  That doesn't make each thing that we want evil, but it does mean our lives are out of balance. These verses are about money, which can get us into a lot of trouble if we desire it more than we desire God, or trust in it more than we trust in him.
It's hard to love God the most or put him first or trust him if we don't know him very well.  That's one of the reasons we are asked to pray and read our scriptures... so that we can get to know God, understand his role in our lives, and learn to trust him.  One of the things that we can do to learn to trust God is trying obedience.  There are many other things listed here that it would be better to focus on instead of money. Let's put as much effort into studying one of these topics as we do daydreaming about winning the lottery or whatever else it is we do as we are preoccupied with money.  Let's see what happens. :)  ... And this experiment can work for other things as well.  If we are thinking and obsessing too much about anything at all, let's start replacing those thoughts with the things of God.  Let's learn about the principles of his gospel and find joy instead of piercing ourselves with many sorrows. :)  God will help us to always have enough, and to find rich spiritual treasures that will last much longer.

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