Have you heard Ariana Grande’s song 7 Rings? I will be the first to admit that I love this song! It’s so catchy and it is definitely on my favorite songs playlist. It goes something like this:
You like my hair? Gee thanks! Just bought it. I see it, I like it. I want it, I got it. Wearin’ a ring, but ain’t gon’ be no “Mrs.” Buy matching diamonds for six of my b**ches. I’d rather spoil all my friends with my riches. Think retail therapy my new addiction. Whoever said money can’t solve your problems? Must have not had enough money to solve ‘em. They say, ‘Which one?’, I say, ‘Nah, I want all of ‘em.’ Happiness is the same price as red bottoms.”
This is a catchy song that you should go give a listen to. I am pretty sure we are in agreement that the lyrics are not super wholesome. However, these lyrics are a glimpse into a deep heart issue and an unhealthy view of money. A view that says that money will solve all the problems and bring happiness. Every time I hear this song I laugh out loud when she says: “whoever said money can’t solve your problems? Must have not had enough money to solve ‘em.” She is saying what we are thinking a lot of the time . . . “If only I just had . . .” (Fill in the blank)! In case you’re wondering, Ariana Grande’s net worth is $150 million. Maybe $150 million would solve your problems – I wouldn’t know! What I do know is that it can’t solve all of them – but I can guarantee that it can solve (or at least temporarily solve) a lot of them. That right there is the dangerous pull that money has on us in this world.
Growing up in the church I learned that we GIVE money. Each Sunday it is part of the routine of worship to pass the offering plate. The expectation when it comes your way is to give. The idea here is that God gave us all that we have and instead of being greedy and keeping it all to ourselves to use how we please, we should give a portion back to Him by giving to the church. Doing so is an act of worship to entrust God to use the money we give to fuel the ministry and to spread the Good News of Jesus. This is true. But, it wasn’t until recently while reading through Matthew 6, that I realized that there is another reason we should give.
“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
Matthew 6:24-25
After many years of struggling with anxiety and clinging to the words from Matthew 6 (and in particular the “do not worry” verses) I never realized until the other day that the verses about money here preceded those about anxiety. As I think about that fact again I want to face palm because I can’t believe how I’ve missed out on that connection and how obvious it seems now! In most Bibles there is a heading placed in between verse 24 and 25 and so we deem them unrelated. But that’s just not true! Here, Jesus is putting a finger on our anxieties and calling them out. He knows that we are going to worry about things in the world because there are pressures here; pressures to make sure we have food and clothes and the necessities of life (which can only be bought with an exchange of money by the way!). Beyond that, there are pressures to have wealth and ‘things’ so as to prove you are wealthy because that is what deems you successful in the world. In Matthew 6, Jesus is giving us two options to overcome our worry regarding the pressures of the world. He is saying that we can either choose to lean into ‘Mammon’, the money god (which is how Jesus refers to money here), or we can lean into God. Mammon will, in fact, temporarily solve some of our problems and pressures and provide for us. Or, we can lean into God, who can always be trusted to provide and take care of us. Both will alleviate worry and anxiety. The problem with choosing to lean into Mammon instead of Jesus is that money is only a temporary relief from worry and will, in the end, continue to breed more worry. Mammon is an unkind ‘god’ that keeps requiring more – never fully satisfying but giving you just enough to keep you coming back: “Greed is the insatiable desire for more. How much is enough? John D. Rockefeller said ‘A little bit more.’” Relying on God to alleviate our worries, on the other hand, will bring us peace that passes all understanding.
Jesus recognizes the powerful allure that money has over our lives and over our hearts. As I mentioned above, we give and are generous with our money to worship and please God, but what is this other reason we should give? “. . . to loose the grip of greed. The powers that energize money cannot abide that most unnatural of acts, giving. Money is made for taking, for bargaining for manipulating, but not for giving. This is exactly why giving has such an ability to defeat the powers of money.” Do you feel the monstrous grip of greed creeping into your heart? Give. Embrace generosity and you defy any hold that money and its power have over you. It sounds real easy – but it’s not! Giving is difficult because it’s an unnatural process for us as humans and sometimes it’s easier to live by embracing a scarcity mindset. But, giving is God’s way out for us so that we do not have to be chained to something so worldly. Again, God tells us to give a tithe of what we have been given, not to limit us but because it’s what’s best for us.
Deuteronomy 14:22-29 talks about tithing. Tithing is a Biblical word that refers to “the tenth part of all fruits and profits due to God and thus to the church for the maintenance of ministry.” It’s interesting in Deuteronomy because when it gives instruction about giving the tithe to the Lord it doesn’t say: “go put your yearly tithing offering in the temple.” For some reason this is what I always assumed it would say. Rather, it says: “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He will choose as the dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.” (verse 22-23). Wait. We are supposed to go all out once a year on a huge feast with gratitude celebrating God’s provisions? If the Bible is telling me to feast, I will feast! Then why don’t we do that? We do! Enter, Thanksgiving. Once again, another holiday that we celebrate in our worldly calendar that has Biblical roots. Another way to break the power of greed and money is by having overwhelming hearts of gratitude recognizing that what you have been given is a good gift from God. Everything you have is not given to you by accident, but by a Good God that deserves praise, honor, and gratitude – not just once a year but every day. Greed breeds an ungrateful heart; gratitude breeds contentment.
“Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Money is one of the ‘hot topics’ in life and it is one of the things Jesus addresses tons in the Gospels. In Matthew 6, He leaves us with a warning: That you cannot serve two masters. Why not? Because both masters require complete devotion. If you give one complete devotion, you are automatically not able to serve the other one. In the case of money and God, they both have such opposing values – money as a master breeds greed and a scarcity mindset and God as a master breeds peace, provision and gratitude. It is impossible to serve both. Adopting the values of money will lead you in the complete opposite direction of God and vice versa. God is a good, fair and kind master to serve; money is none of the above.
Do you struggle with anxiety? Before writing off everything I have just said and claiming that you don’t serve money, take a moment to think about it. This may not be your reason for struggling with anxiety (it’s not my sole reason either), but it could be a contributing factor. What I realized was that, even though my husband and I give, we hadn’t been intentional to increase our giving over the last year even though our income increased. I think I knew that. In fact, I know I knew that. I am not going to try and pretend that I wasn’t being a bit lazy and greedy, but I stuffed it to the side because we were still giving! But there is a big difference between giving and generosity. They are both good and asked of us in the Kingdom of God – however, generosity refers more to the person and the heart motive than the ‘act’. So yes, you can still give and not be generous. While studying through Matthew 6, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I was giving without generosity. And then, it all made sense. I understood why I was anxious about ‘having enough’ each month – even though we were living inside of our means and sticking to our budget. Each time we would buy something for our house (which ended up being a lot this last summer as we had to landscape our yard!), I was fearful we would not have enough. I would express this anxiety and each month there was this continuous, unhealthy and limiting cycle. But you know what? We always had enough. We were never in need and we have never been in need. Even in my anxiety, God provided. But with God, there is always a better way and so, as I read Matthew 6, I realized that a deeper trust in God needed to be restored in my life and Mammon needed to be cast aside so that I could be devoted fully to Christ. And, as we just learned, one of the ways to loosen the grip of greed and the power of money in our lives is to give and to be generous with it. So I sat down one day with Jesus and my notebook and I honestly calculated how much money we ‘should be’ giving to the church. And then I confessed my sin before the Lord and asked for His forgiveness that I had neglected to change the amount we had been giving. And then, I gave. But God didn’t just stop me there – He set a challenge before me. Each month my husband and I in our budget have an allotted amount of money that we ‘allow’ each other to spend without consulting the other person. You can spend that money on whatever you’d like – to see a movie, to buy books, coffee, clothes – however you want to spend that money you can do so without consulting the other person. We call this ‘fun money’. Usually I want to spend my fun money on clothes. But this month God put it on my heart to give it all away. You guys, this has been really hard (as I am still in the midst of this challenge!). I almost ‘pushed it off’ to next month because there were already a few new sweaters I had my eye on. But let’s be real, then I would have never done the challenge. So each week, instead of buying myself something, I have been using that money and finding a new place to donate to. At the start of every week, I have been asking God to put a new place on my heart to be generous to. Each week I don’t have a new sweater in my closet (which is still a little disappointing) but my heart feels a little lighter.
“Each person should do as he has decided in his heart – not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:7
Now, let me be clear: There is nothing wrong with buying things. But, there is a problem when the lure of money and things becomes anxiety inducing, consuming or it inspires loyalty. When reading the lyrics of the song 7 Rings to a friend, she couldn’t believe that those were the words. She said: “She must be joking or sarcastic or something. There is no way Ariana Grande actually thinks and feels that way about money. That can’t be real.” I agree! It seems so greedy and arrogant! But it is real. Ariana Grande’s song shows us that “in a myriad of ways every day we are told, ‘We are what we have.’ This is why Jesus called money, mammon, the money god. Money is not a neutral means of exchange – it has the power to inspire devotion.” We laugh at how ridiculous her lyrics are, but if you really pause to evaluate, do we see any of those words ringing true in our hearts as something we might believe? In North America, we have a very consumerism driven culture. For us, the love of money and the desire for more of it is an easy, deceptive and fatal trap set up by the enemy to inspire our devotion. But God has a better way and He gives us a way out. Don’t ignore it! Choose to give and be generous people full of gratitude. In doing so, you will avoid the money pitfall.
Written by: Justine Joy
Refined Joy 