KEEPING YOUR EYE ON GOD
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Opening Prayer
Father in Heaven, you know me better than I know myself. Please speak to me through your Word and give me what I need to serve you wholeheartedly today.
Read MATTHEW 6:16—24
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Matthew
Matthew 6
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,
18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Reflect
Where do you most often go to seek things like security, joy, or contentment?
‘The eye is the lamp of the body’ (v. 22) is a provocative metaphor. When good eyes are fixed on God, he illumines you. Sinful eyes look elsewhere, for human praise or money, and they shut out God’s light. Fasting was a key contemporary Jewish practice that could be accompanied by uncut hair and ash on the face, possibly drawing attention and admiration. However, as with giving and praying, it is only when we look to God in secret that he values what drives all our actions. Good eyes are fixed on God.
Sinful eyes fail to let in light because they fixate on money and treasures. A famous twentieth-century economist commented, ‘The chief moral problem of our age is concerned with the love of money, with the habitual appeal to the money motive in nine-tenths of the activities of life.’1 Jesus confronts this focus head-on by contrasting the built-in obsolescence of earthly treasures and money with the lasting value of heaven’s treasure. This requires focusing on kingdom values, following all Jesus’ teaching now (as in this chapter), as well as anticipating the inheritance prepared for us in heaven.2 Money is not some impersonal, neutral thing. It has the power to enslave us. When Jesus contrasts the two masters—God and money—he sets them up as rivals. Either we willingly serve God with all we have and are, or money will own us with its slogan: more, more, more.
Just what are we valuing—where do we fix our eyes? What are our priorities? Some, or even many of us, are privileged to be in the wealthier part of God’s world. We need to learn how to possess money without being possessed by it, learning how to use it in ways that benefit the kingdom.
Apply
How can you best demonstrate that money has no power over you? How generous have you been?
Closing prayer
I confess, Lord, that my priorities are too often driven by what others think and by cultural norms. Help me to gain a clearer focus on what you desire for me.
1 John Maynard Keynes, in Living Quotations for Christians (Hodder & Stoughton, 1974), 158 2 1 Pet 1:4.
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