What Your Hope Is Attached To

A number on a page means nothing on its own. A bank balance only matters because of what we attach to it: safety, freedom, a sense that things will be okay. The trouble starts when we attach our hope to it.

Paul tells Timothy to warn the rich “that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” Notice the word uncertain. Proverbs is even more blunt: “riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”

It is possible to say “Jesus is my foundation” and live as if the business, the job or the savings account is. You find out which one you are really standing on when the money shakes.

Money isn’t the enemy. Paul says God gives us “richly all things to enjoy.” But it makes a poor foundation. Put your hope in the living God, and hold the rest loosely.