Hey ladies! I pray you are enjoying our time together as we continue this Lent devotional. I am very happy to be back- I was gone for far too long. If you will open your Bibles to Mark10:23-31 & Luke 12:13-21. “Through Christ’s sacrifice, we receive blessing upon blessing.”
As humans, we can easily be distracted by the things of this world. We get caught up in all the pretty things, wanting our homes to look a certain way, dress a certain way, etc. Sometimes it’s not even wanting things, maybe it’s wanting food. Ladies, we have that sweet tooth, of course we want all the delicious, sweet treats. Wanting to have nice things or having a certain food (or certain amount of food) is not a problem, it is when our hearts tell us we want or need more. A byproduct of greed is materialism, which involves purchasing and clinging to physical possessions as a way of comfort or happiness. Greed and materialism can easily worm their ways into our hearts, Satan can easily speak those little lies into your mind. It can be difficult to realize our tendency to be greedy, when we recognize and repent of these sins, we ae clinging to God alone. Again, the word repent can come off a little strong, right? Maybe this word wants you to hold your hand up and possibly be on guard? For me, this comes from how people have used “repent” to manipulate me and have me behave as they saw fit. This is from the enemy. He tries to use this lie to convince me that repent is a terrible word. “Repent”… really?” Here is the definition of repent, “to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.” This is what God wants from us. He wants us to come to Him, pour out our wrongdoing and say, “Father, I messed up! I am so sorry, please forgive me and help me turn from this. Help me continue to walk in your footsteps, not the way of this world.”
Greed is sin because our greed causes us to disbelieve that God is all we need. When we disbelieve that He is our source of happiness, we rely on money to buy what God can only give. Saving and having money is not wrong, but we can become greedy and make wealth something we live for. Greed occurs when we revolve our lives around money rather than setting our focus on Jesus. When this happens, we turn money into an idol. We essentially worship money through our pursuit of and telling ourselves we need it. Also, when greed leads to materialism it causes us to depend on physical items rather than on the Lord. Again, it is not wrong to want to explore the world, buy the things we need, but it’s when we rely on these things to make us happy- that is when it is sinful. Materialism basically is telling God, “I don’t need You.” We try to create our own happiness and joy that the Creator provides in Himself. Our joy is not found in the things of this world, our joy is found in Jesus! He gives us abundantly more than this world could ever give us.
In Christ, we have what we need, in Christ, we have spiritual blessings that go beyond anything this world could offer us. Not everyone has a lot of money, many of us are struggling financially. Might I make a suggestion? Instead of holding a grudge towards our brothers and sisters in Christ who having money, ask God to help you grow in your faith and trust in Him. I am not saying that if you have little faith or trust, you don’t get spiritually blessings. What I am saying is that instead of being bitter, ask Him to take those hard feelings away from you, and ask Him to help you through the difficult road. Place all your faith, your trust, your doubt, everything over to Him. He will make a way- He has always made a way for me, even when I saw no light at the end of the tunnel. He has always been faithful.
Let’s discuss what we just learned. I have some questions that I want you to think about, write them down, and if you’d like to comment below, we can discuss them together!
- In what ways can you be greedy? What can you do to keep yourself from being greedy?
- Read Matthew 6:19-21. How does these verses challenge you?
- Take a moment and spend some time in prayer. Ask God to help you see Him as all you need and help you focus on Christ’s spiritually blessings over the riches of this world.
Today’s verse for Lent prayer is Colossians 1:21-22 and the prayer prompt is, “Praise Jesus for giving you reconciliation with God and making you holy and innocent. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you respond to your position in Christ by living obediently to the Lord.”
“In Christ, we have exactly what we need.”
I hope you enjoy this study and decide to come back. Tomorrow we will discuss Forsaking Discontentment. I hope you enjoy the beautiful sunset that was made by our loving Father and y’all have a wonderful night.