Mammon

Matthew 6:24No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
An Aramaic word signifying wealth, riches. Mammon stands in opposition to God, indicating that wealth, or riches, is the opponent of God, robbing God's people of their service to Him. (Footnote from Recovery Version on Mammon).

"No one can serve two masters", is an emphatic word form the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; either serve God or serve mammon. Never did I understand the depth of this profound yet simple statement. Yes, I have been mentally harboring the evil of mammon without actually realising how wicked indeed it has been throughout the ages. No wonder the Lord equated His opponent as "mammon" who is Satan in an attractive form. Mammon is a personification of Satan.

Recently, in my church life I have been seeing this open secret more clearly. That too, among the saints? How subtle Satan is to seduce the saints into the secrecy of his sinful snares? Using money, Satan has been playing spoil sport among the saints. Most of these saints are in fellowship with me personally, and it was a precious lesson for me too,  to learn not to be snared by the subtlety of Satan.

A brother entered into an agreement with another brother for a car deal which is still on EMI. The first brother got the loan, but as it became too heavy, he passed the car on to another brother with the understanding that the second brother would continue to pay the EMI of the loan. This seemed to worked well until a cheque bounce case with a fine imposed on the first brother got embroiled with the second, and the latter too could not pay the due on time due to inconsistent job. The true nature of mammon got exposed,  even creating enmity between the two brothers. Finally, the matter reached me. What should I do? Just pray for the Lord's covering of the saints. Later, the two got reconciled, and perhaps, they have learnt their lessons.

Another case was with sisters who handled a certain account of visiting saints from abroad. But mysteriously some money got missed with no clue of expense nor how it was misplaced. This incident took an ugly turn creating suspicion among the sisters involved,  yet every stakeholders claiming innocence. The fact was, nobody knew how the money got missed. But later, in fellowship things were reconciled.

Similarly, many among the saints too are caught up with money matter. For some reason, many of these are in direct fellowship with me personally. I could perceive clearly the destructive hand of the enemy to destroy the church life. Try whatever he may, all these experiences are creating positive impact on our Christian life and church life. What the enemy meant for worst was sovereignly used by God to perfect us, for our learning,  growth and maturity in life.

Now I really loathe mammon. If only I could do without it, I would have gotten rid of it altogether. Nevertheless, it still has to be used for the human needs, but not to love it nor be entangled by it. The best way to handle mammon, especially money, I have learned so far is, to consecrate all our money to the Lord that the Lord may sanctify it's usage, and offer to the Lord back for the Lord's work on earth, to the church, to the needy saints and for the Lord's move on earth.

Lord, grace me to love You more and more each day; more than anything else, even more than mammon.