Money

Money dan skognes motivation blogger speaker teacher trainer coachEverybody needs it.  Everybody wants it. It is like air in that it is pretty hard to live without it. One thing I know for sure is that money reveals character. Whether you have a lot or whether you have a little does not matter in relation to character.  What matters is how you handle it and how you feel about it because that reveals the real you.

There was a show when I was growing up that was called The Millionaire.  It was a cool TV series where an extremely wealthy man would find someone in great need and give them a million bucks. I think we all have fanaticized about THAT happening. There were no strings, but how they responded to the immediate wealth was fascinating; some turned out very well and some not so good. Their true selves were revealed in how they responded.

Most recently there was a show on TV called The Briefcase. It was a short-lived series where some middle-class family was given a briefcase containing $100,000. They were told they could keep it all, give part of it away, or give all of it to another family that was as needy as they were…possibly even needier. They were given clues over a period of days as to what the other family was like and the depth of their need. At the end of a few days they had to make their final decision. What they were NOT told was that the other family had also been given $100,000! They were in the same boat about what to keep and what to give away. It was fun to watch and interesting to see how people changed as they came to grips with the decision they had to make. It was an agonizing time and they often vacillated back and forth before they made their final decision.

I know we need money, but do I want to put my trust in it? No. In fact, our currency tells us who we need to trust. “In God We Trust” is printed on it, but do we do that? Unfortunately, often we don’t. Even though we know God is there for us and with us, even though He has our best interests at heart, and even though He has done many things to bless us before…we succumb to fear.  When there is lack of money the danger is that money becomes our god, and we may find ourselves doing things that are less than intelligent in hind-site.

Money, by the way, is not evil. Many people misquote the Bible when it comes to money.  It is the “love” of money that is the root of all sorts of evil. When we worship and love money, we are headed for some very hard lessons that will be painful and possibly fatal. It would be interesting to know how many people are depressed or have committed suicide over it. I think we would be shocked if we knew the depth of the problem.

We will only know peace when we learn to be content regardless of what we have or don’t have. Think about it: if we are always chasing the dollar, how can we ever truly be at peace. We need to chase God and pursue Him with all our heart. When we step into our God-given destiny the money will take care of itself.  Will we still be tested? Absolutely! God will continue to peel away the layers to reveal Himself to us and reveal any flaws which we might still be holding on to.

Money is a terrible taskmaster to serve. It is unloving, unkind, and without feeling. In reality, money is just a tool. We can use it or abuse it. We can steward it, or we can worship it. We have to decide where we stand in relation to God and money. We cannot serve both. So…who will you serve? I am putting my faith and trust in God.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

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