Mental Prayer for October 14-Money

Mental Prayer Meditation Helps

Presence of God

Grace I Ask: Lord, give me Your view of money.

The Idea: "I am the Lord thy God i thou shalt not have strange gods before me." As the modern American reads this, he thinks that it doesn't apply to him, for he does not worship idols. But he forgets that "idol" includes more than statues. An idol is anything that we value so highly that it takes God's place as the most important thing in our life. For many Americans today that idol is money. They live their whole lives just trying to get money and the things money can buy: a newer car or a better vacation or a more exclusive home or the most fashionable clothes. They do not see that often they are setting up a creature to take God's place as the most important thing in their life.

Money is not bad in itself. It can be the source of much good. Everyone should be concerned about money so that he can learn what he needs and use it wisely. But everyone, especially everyone in modern America, should remember that money and the things money can buy can become a god blocking God from his heart.

My Personal Application: What is the attitude in the back of my mind about money? Do I over­value it, unconsciously making its possession the most important thing in my life? I can serve only one god. Which will it be, the god money or the God Christ? Or do I misuse money by under­valuing it: wasting it, spending it for useless things, forgetting how much good it can do?

I Speak to God: Lord, help me to realize what you meant when you said, "Where thy treaure is, there thy heart is also" (Matt. 6 : 21).

Thought for Today: "No man can serve two masters."
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Adapted from Mental Prayer, Challenge to the Lay Apostle
by The Queen's Work,(© 1958)