Discipleship Devotional, February 9th, 2025
“Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’”
– Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Greed and covetousness are among those things that cannot be cured by prayer and fasting alone. They cannot be cured by Bible study and worship alone. It requires us to take certain actions after all the aforementioned spiritual devotions that will help to put money in its place. One of such actions is giving to people. We are not talking about what is called “sowing and reaping,” where people give certain amounts of money hoping that God will give them back in multiple folds. Most times, this sort of giving is incapable of circumcising the heart of greed because, many times, such giving can even be a manifestation of greed.
The kind of giving we speak of is giving without expecting anything in return. It is giving to people whom we know are incapable of repaying us with the same good. It is giving because God commands us to be generous. It is also sacrificial giving, where we give certain amounts even when we don’t have much. This sort of giving breaks the bond of mammon in our hearts.
This is not to say that when we give in such a way, God cannot bless us back. God can do so. However, the motive for such generosity is love for God and love for people. The devil hates us being generous in such ways because it has a way of ridding us of the toxic hold of money. But eventually, we are all the better for doing so. It is not God’s will for us to hoard resources; rather, God has created us to be like a channel through which resources flow to others. We are like a pipe that water flows through.
If we decide to hoard resources and not allow them to flow through us, we will bloat, and it will eventually damage us. When we hold money in our hearts, it will seek to rule over us. We must always look to put it in its place.
“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.”
– 1st Timothy 6:10 (NIV)
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, help me to be generous and continually rid my heart of greed.
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