Want to know God?

Want to know God?

By Jenni Ingram
Member, First Baptist Church Gantt

Is a dollar worth a family member? If your child were kidnapped, heaven forbid, and the ransom was $1,000 or $1 million, wouldn’t you find a way to get it? Even if you were unemployed and barely making it, wouldn’t you sell everything you own to get that child back? Then why do some people allow money to get in the way of relationships with loved ones, good friends, anything?

Scripture says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:10).

Notice this verse does not say money is the root of all kinds of evil. It is the love of money that makes it evil.

Why? Because it becomes an idol.

The pursuit of more and more takes our focus from our relationship with the Father. The sole pursuit of it may come from breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Do you remember the one about “thou shalt not covet”?

The reason I am broaching this subject is because I saw an old friend the other day at the store and he said to me, “I will never speak to her (my daughter) ever again because she refuses to pay the money she owes me.”

This is heartbreaking to me because I know Jesus paid such an enormous sin debt by sacrificing His body and His life to guarantee our future and He has never asked us to repay it.

There are parables in the New Testament about money and not one of them says you have to repay Jesus for His sacrifice to get into heaven. If He doesn’t require repayment to restore a relationship, why should we?