Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
There is an emotional attachment everyone has towards money and that is why it is usually a very sensitive topic to delve into. God’s purpose for His people when it comes to relating with money is simple; His goal is to help us by His Spirit overcome that emotional attachment.
You see that pain you feel when you lose money or that struggle to let go of it in order to support a cause that is not connected to you or will not directly benefit you? That is the emotional attachment. You literally feel the pinch in your heart because like the opening scripture, where your treasure is, your heart will also be. You have passion for the things that are connected to your heart and you easily get hurt when anything goes wrong in that direction. Money touches hearts very deeply.
When you look at Matthew 6:24, something profound was said; No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is the spirit behind money. Another word for ‘serve’ is ‘worship‘. Worship is connected to our spirit man and whenever you see heart in the scriptures, it points to our spirit man because that is the core of who we are. We are first and ultimately spirit. Our flesh is just to give us leverage on the earth, which is the representation of the physical world. So, you can understand why the heart is so connected to money. God’s vision for us is to get to the point where our heart is so devoted to Him that we are not controlled by mammon. In that chapter of Matthew 6, we have the famous verse 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you which alludes to the fact that God wants us to first prioritize Him instead giving our whole lives only to the pursuit of money.
Going back to that emotional attachment to money, you’d realize that this is mainly a soul thing. Remember when you accept Jesus, your spirit becomes one with Him. This means your spirit is automatically saved but guess what? Your soul will have to go through a gradual process. Romans 12:2 speaks of the renewing of the mind. It is in this process, a lot of mindsets will begin to change. The soul comprises of mind, will and emotions. We are looking at emotional attachment but this emotional part begins with a thinking or thought. So in this same Matthew 6 in verse 25, the Bible says; Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment. When your entire mind is full of money, that is when the emotional attachment is stronger.
When you don’t have money or you lose money, how do you feel in your emotions? That will indicate to you the level of emotional attachment you have with money.
If you are only excited when there is money, then there is a problem. God doesn’t want us to be defined by our wealth. Neither does He want our joy to be tied to material things.
I remember judging myself a while ago on this. 8 years ago, I lost all the money I had on me in my purse. This was $80 to be precise and I had just moved to this country, so that was all I had on me. I remember my heart was literally aching, I was moody, depressed and so sad. It took me over a month to get over this feeling. Then 3 years ago, I lost money that was way more than that and when I saw how calm I was, it just hit me that I had grown. Do this test on yourself regularly.
Giving is also a major way to deal with this emotional attachment to money. When you give a particular amount of money over and over again, it begins to look small to you. In other words, giving is the way you break the idolatry of money. When something is an idol, you view that thing so high and you literally worship it.
Any money you struggle to give is too big in your eyes and the moment you give it, it now means nothing to you.
When you truly love the Lord, giving to him won’t be a challenge because your heart is fully devoted to Him. When people argue about 10%, it’s interesting because anyone who has walked with God will know that there are times, you empty your account and so 10% is child’s play. This is the thing about giving; You can’t force it. You do it based on a revelation, otherwise it will all be about one argument after the other. And finally, never give to impress people or just to satisfy a religious obligation. You must understand what you are doing.
The Word In Clarity 