Money is not wrong, but loving it, is. Money is only a convenient way to exchange what we have for what we need. Instead of having to carry around farm produce or livestock when we want to purchase what we need, we have the value of what we have earned in money. We can be tempted to think that the more money we have, the more secure we are. Therefore, we can be restless or fearful if we think that we do not have enough; and our peace can disintegrate.

As part of our worship (Hebrews 12:28), we are commanded to trust the Lord for our practical welfare. The lust for money and the greedy ambition to get more is worship of ourselves, not God. Such thinking will lead us into all kinds of evil: it will pull our hearts away from the Lord and into destructive life-patterns (1 Timothy 6:10). So the disciple of Jesus should make an active choice not to be ruled by money or possessions, popularity or status, or anything which offers security – but which is not God. It is all part of ‘taking up our cross’, placing our focus on following Jesus and trusting Him to provide (Matthew 16:24-26).

Contentment is much more important than money. Godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6). The peace which comes is based on the promise of God to be with us. As Moses handed the baton of leadership to Joshua he promised that the Lord would never leave him or forsake him (Deuteronomy 31:6-8). Moses knew how important that was because he had previously pleaded with the Lord, "If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here." (Exodus 33:15). Only the Lord's presence could give Moses the courage, confidence, peace and security he needed to lead a troublesome, grumbling and disobedient people to the Promised Land.

We do not know the future. We have no idea what demands may be made of us, nor whether we will have the personal resources to deal with whatever we will encounter. If we worry about the challenges we do know, how will we cope with the challenges which come unexpectedly. The only way forward is to trust the Lord and rely on His presence. He sees all the problems before we do and will also supply the right resources at the right time. He does not let His righteous ones starve (Psalm 37:25). He does not abandon his loved ones (Deuteronomy 4:31). So ask the Lord to deal with that money lust and give you a new hunger for His presence. As Psalm 89:15 says, "Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord." Learn to trust Him more than anything you can see.