All of us are steeped in the mindset that money has value. So ingrained is this conclusion that we correlate everything else to money. We place a monetary value on our possessions when we set up for a garage sale. We estimate the damage that a tornado inflicts in terms of how much it will cost to clean up and rebuild. We even say, “Time is money” and attempt to put a monetary value on something that is totally out of our control and is going to continue marching on no matter what. Nor need you look far to find how readily Americans go to the courts to sue someone else, placing a dollar figure on something as intangible and unquantifiable as suffering and pain. Given this frame of mind, it’s no wonder that we struggle with God’s words and instructions about money. If you stop and listen to your thoughts, how often won’t you find that money’s value outweighs God’s promises (“I’ll know God is taking care of me when I have __ dollars in the bank account”)? If you have a conversation with an acquaintance about money, how many times won’t the basis for the entire conversation be built on the idea that money is good and has value and therefore gives and grants security? We need to be shocked out of this mindset once and for all. It won’t be easy. It will mean changing the way we talk, the vocabulary we use, even the thoughts that we think. We need to be re-wired to think about money in an entirely different way. There is a nice little passage—1 Corinthians 7:29-31—that turns our entire value system upside down. There the apostle Paul tells us that we are living in the last days and that Jesus is going to return. When he does (or, for that matter, when we die), most of the things we think are valuable will prove to have no real and lasting value at all. Money will pass away. The things of this world will disappear. Even marriage will be a thing of the past. I’m by nature one of those who tends toward the frugal side of the spectrum. I don’t like to spend money. I suppose the root of my dislike for spending is that I think that my future will be more secure if I have a few more dollars in my pocket. This passage has helped me re-shape the way I think when I’m reluctant to make a purchase. I’ve taken to keeping these words running through my mind: Those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. It has been helpful for me to remind myself that I needn’t be engrossed in the things of this world. They don’t have real and lasting value. They’re just tools that God uses to supply for my needs right now. So I can spend my dollars and I can save them. I’ll try my best to be wise in the decisions that I make with my money. But I won’t put my trust in my bank account. I won’t value my money more than I value my God. For God is the one who knows when this world’s present form will pass away, and he has promised that he will supply for my needs both before and after that occurs.