Do You Love God Or Money

In light of all the craze over tonights lottery drawing I figured that we should spend just a few minutes in the Word of God to see how He feels about this. As usual I am well aware that what I am about to write is not going to sit well with some people, but I am a child of God and I will not let His Word go unnoticed. If you have a problem with what I am about to say take it up with the one who created you. 
 
First let's look at Proverbs 13:11 KJV (King James Version)- Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labourshall increase. 
 
First lets see what Webster dictionary says the definition of vanity is. Vanity- The quality or state of being vain; want of substance to satisfy desire; emptiness; unsubstantialness; unrealness; falsity. Sounds to me that God does not want us to desire things that we can't or should not have, instead we should be content with all that He has given us and have the faith to believe that what we have is what He means for us to have. Also that wealth that is gathered by hard work is honest wealth. 
 
Next let's look at Ecclesiastes 5:10 KJV He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. 
 
There is that word again vanity, hum twice in just 2 verses I am starting to get the picture that God does NOT like vanity. My take on this verse is that it is saying that vain people are never content with what they have, if God gives them silver they want God, and when God blesses someone with an abundance they are not satisfied they want more, it is never enough for them. 
 
Turn to 1 Timothy 6:10 KJV 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. 
 
This verse is pretty self explanatory, when you put anything in place of your love for God it is evil. The love of God should be number one over anyone and everything. They say that money can't buy you happiness and they are right, TRUE happiness comes only when you love the Creator instead of the created. You can't take anything with you when you die so lay up your treasures in Heaven not here on this old decaying world. 
 
The last verse we will look at is Hebrews 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 
 
This by far is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, because you get a lesson and a wonderful promise at the end, a promise that He will never leave or forsake us, can money give you that promise? Can your house or your cars give you that promise? No they can't. God instructs us to be mindful of what we say and do, He tells us not to strive for things that we do not need, but strive for the one person who has already given you so much more then we deserve. God gave His Son for your sins and mine. He bore the pain for us, He died to pay our sin debt, and He did this because He loves you and me with His whole heart. John 15:13 KJV Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 
 
So before you go out and spend that money on something that can't promise anything, why not put your faith in the One who can promise you His love, support and protection I would rather have that over money any day.

Learning To Let Go And Let God

There is a saying I have heard all my life that says we should let go and let God, and you know for the longest time after I grew old enough to understand what it meant had a problem with it. I mean even though I was very well aware that I had no control over the events in my life I still at times could just not accept that saying. Did that mean that I did not trust God? No it didn't but for some reason when it came to something being wrong with a loved one or myself I always seemed to fight against the very will of God even though I knew He knew what He was doing. If it was not something that I agreed with, or I thought was wrong I would literally get mad at Him, I know I should be ashamed and on trust me I am, but I am being completely honest about this even though to look back does hurt my heart allot.

See when my son Andy was born 15 weeks premature and spent 14 months in the hospital before we got to bring him home, there were many many times that he was literally at deaths door and our Gracious Father would bring him back to us, but each time one of those very bad days occurred it was like I went from this calm person into a fighting tiger, I was just not going to accept any decision from God that was different then I wanted it to be, well I thought that if I was tough with God it would help, wow was I wrong. When Andy would go into septic shock, or his lungs would collapse and they were telling me that there was no way that he was going to be able to come out of it, I would immediately get mad at God, looking back oh how ashamed I am of how I treated our beautiful Lord. But as Andy's mom, I just could not let go and let God in the drivers seat even though He was in it all along.

But God was in control, and God spared my child, and the day that we brought him home was one of the greatest day's of my life. Shortly after he was home I became pregnant with my daughter and things seemed to calm down, I was back in church on a regular basis, very active and I was just loving this wonderful life that the Lord had given to me, I thought that everything would be roses from there on out, well all I can say about that thought is man was I wrong LOL. When Andy was 8 years old he got very sick again and had to go back into the hospital for 4 months, and once again I found myself in a very familiar situation but wow did I handle it allot different then I had the last time. See the first time Andy was so sick I saw myself as some sort of super woman, I thought as long as I kept it together and seemed strong then things would work out the way I wanted them to, see I wasn't leaning on God during those tough times and I see now that I handled them the wrong way, I cheated myself out of an opportunity to allow God to help me, well I mean He helped me but I cheated myself out of getting to feel all the wonderful blessings He was bestowing on me because I was to busy trying to save my son.

During his second long hospital stay I did things very differently, there was not a moment when I was sitting that I was not calling out to God asking Him to please help not just my son, but to help me to be able to cope with whatever the outcome of the situation was going to be. I was willing to accept His will and you know looking back I had no fear, I had complete confidence that God would take care of my child and of me, and the Lord was able to take a situation that was awful and turn it into something that gave me great peace, simply because I was willing to let go and let God take control of all area's of my life.

Where Has Everyone's Trust In God Went To?

A couple nights ago I was suffering from some insomnia and so I was up in the family room watching some television, I had it on the Netgeo channel and I watched two shows that were talking about how bad things were going to get in this world unless people changed their ways of living. It was nothing religious in nature they were talking about how bad the world was getting because of people being so careless about their water usage, and how the world was running out of clean water to drink, they were also talking about how if we did not stop polluting the air that soon we would destroy the ozone layer and  we would end up burning alive etc... But you know the one major thing that they left out was the Lord, never once did they say not to worry that the Lord would take care of us, how sad. This world has fallen so far away from the Lord that it no longer even believes in what the Word of God (The Bible) tells us. Instead they want to fill people with fear, with a doomsday message to try and scare people into believing one lie after another and to also try and force people to put their faith in man rather than in the Lord where it belongs. Deuteronomy 31:6 says: (KJV) Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. See God wants us to trust in Him, He wants us to follow and put all our faith in Him. He is the one who created this wonderful world that we live in, do you really think that He can't take care of you? If more people would quit listening to man and start listening to the Lord this world would be in a much better shape.