Your Money or Your life?

What if i told you that there is actually a book by the titled ‘Your Money or Your Life’. It is considered by a lot of people as one of the go-to books for taking back your life by changing your relationship with money. Whether or not the idea of the book is true is a subject of another conversation entirely. 

On a funny note though, I always think that Vicki Robin, the author of the book owes Jesus an apology for using his idea without giving credit to him. Long before Vicki Robin and even the Nigerian Nollywood movies, Jesus also asked the same question, you probably missed it because he asked in a different way. In Mark 8:36, Jesus asked “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Isn’t that the longer version of ‘Your Money or Your Life?’

If you don’t take a closer look at this question there is a temptation to think that Jesus was probably exaggerating the power of money by making this comparison, except that he wasn’t; money is indeed very powerful. In fact, he used a stronger word in Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. I thought we should be comparing God and Satan, but Jesus said the competition is between God and money. Why? It is because money is so powerful and it seeks to possess us. It seeks to take the place of God, to make itself our source of security

Under a normal circumstance, the believer is supposed to trust God primarily as his source of security of any kind (material security or physical security). What money does instead is to present itself to us as the alternative to God. Money says to the believer, why must you pray about everything when you can solve it with money. When God gives the believer an instruction, his mind begins to calculate where can I get the money to finance this. His faith is only as strong as his bank account. When an SMS sound beeps on his phone he jumps up to check if it’s a bank alert; if it is, he rejoices only to open the SMS to see that it’s a debit not credit alert. His joy instantly turns into agitation and anger. In fact, the devil stopped fighting him long ago, why fight him when you have his control button? He makes him happy when he want and sad when he wills, all he has to do is mess with his finances. He has yielded control of his life to money, yet he prays and speaks in tongues of men and angels. 

Look, don’t live in self-denial. Jesus was quite blunt about the fact that money has a controlling force, you will be presumptuous to think otherwise. Instead, ask yourself ‘have i truly overcome money’? Do I have a price? Are there lines that I will never cross no matter the commercial value? Could it be that the reason for my argument against tithing is not just a doctrinal matter but a deeper issue with my financial stewardship? It’s ok to be unsure, that’s a great opportunity to go before the lord for help. Guess what? There’s no better time to ask God for help than now.