When Money Crowds Out God

So, I want to keep on track this week about some of the things that in many ways separate us from our relationship with God. The pursuit of “more” is definitely one of those things...“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”Ecclesiastes 5:10 ESVFor many believers, what’s keeping us from a close relationship with God is not a lack of desire to know Him better. Rather, it is a suffocating clutter of material wealth and comforts and the drive to possess them which crowds Him out of our lives. If the drive to earn more for the sake of having more comes at the expense of the eternal riches of our salvation and a genuine relationship with our Heavenly Father, then we have our priorities way wrong. Right?Don’t discount the danger that greed and material excess can pose to relationships. Consider just how often couples fight over money… or how many marriages have ended due to financial issues… or how many bitter divorces have been dragged out over the splitting of assets. If money and possessions have the potential to suffocate our human relationships, how much more so might they hamper our relationship with God?“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”Matthew 6:24 Be Nice. Grace wins.