Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
do not trust your own cleverness.

Proverbs 23:4 (NIV)

You’ve got better things to do with your God-given time and talent than chase after money. It’s much better to pursue the happiness and comfort of those around you, and thereby glorify God, than to try to secure or entertain oneself with that which can be gained by riches.

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 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 Timothy 6:9-10

There is more than just foolishness in pursuing wealth; there is the danger of losing the faith. The Pharisees who persecuted Jesus started as a “back to the Bible” movement, to use a contemporary phrase, but they soon began to be deceived that whomever God loved, he blessed with wealth. With that unsupported belief, their priorities slipped.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Put your heart where it belongs, at the end of the road in Heaven. Set your sights far off, and the temporary things of this world, like money, will be far down the list of priorities.

Ethan Kirl

Originally published September 15, 2021