Are you more concerned with what’s in the bank than what’s in your heart? Stop coveting and worrying and be happy.

I’ve been noticing a very disturbing trend among Christians lately, and that trend is people focusing more on what they don’t have than what they posses in their hearts, Jesus. It’s one of those things that really make me scratch my head and wonder how anyone calling themself a Christian can be so focused on what they have on this earth, but will never be able to take with them to heaven. The Bible specifically addresses worrying over wanting what others have, and being angry about what we don’t have in Matthew 6:25-34

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I firmly believe that there is nothing wrong with having money or possesions, it’s what we do with them that can make or break us spiritually. If we own a lot, and hoard it instead of helping others with it, then we need to reevaluate our faith and our hearts. I also believe that God allows us to have what we can handle. And by that I mean that if He blesses us, and we squander the money instead of using it wisely, then we may find ourselves having it taken away. It’s like a parent giving a teenager a new car. Will they give the young adult a muscle car that may lead them into a dangerous situation, or will they give the child a car that’s safe and and conservative so they will not be harmed? Sometimes God deals with us the same way when it comes to possesions and faith, He’s not going to allow us to have more than what we can handle, so we need to respect His judgement and be content with what we do have, not what we don’t.

The bottom line is best summed up in the Matthew verses above. We can be angry that we don’t have a palace to live in while we’re here on this earth, or we can be happy knowing that one day we will be living in the greatest mansion of all in the kingdom of Heaven. If you cannot find happiness in knowing that Jesus died on the cross for you so you can enter the gates one day, then I would suggest that you ask Him for a more grateful heart. In fact, that’s not a bad idea to do even if you do find contentment.

Take a look around today and ask yourself if you are truly happy with a heart full of God, or a bank full of money. Be honest with yourself. I’ll let you be the judge and hopethat we learn to be content with whatever it is that God has blessed us with rather than what we don’t have. Be blessed today…:)