Selling Jesus Out

And said: ¨What will you give me to betray him to you?¨ they stipulated to him thirty silver pieces.  Matthew 26:15 (Reference Bible)

There were twelve Disciples but not all of them were able to separate the Divine from the worldly.  Judas had walked at Jesus´ side and sat at the table with all the others.  He had listened to the teachings of Jesus and witnessed countless miracles.  However, something in his heart was open to the world and to evil.

Pretty easy thing to do, pass this off as a failure on the part of this one man, but we shouldn´t brush the thought away too lightly.  We have this same tendency and face a very real danger of committing the same crime.

The world and money walk hand in hand with evil.  The enemy of our Lord is an extremely cunning adversary and even our Savior had to direct Himself carefully to the Father to remain safe from the clever attacks.

Our church organizations are costly to run.  Bibles and religious material to study cost money to buy.  Missions and aid services take large sums of money.  Everywhere we look even within the Churches dedicated to God, money is needed and we must walk that fine line between the worldly and the spiritual.

It is far too easy to get caught up or even slip up and concentrate on financial matters.  They are so real and extremely pressing.  From them not one of us is completely immune.  We live in a society and a world that runs by those means.  Yet in the midst of a world of commerce walks Jesus Christ.  He stands for directing our eyes above the hustle and bustle.  He points constantly to things infinitely larger and more everlasting.  He directs us to God.

One must lean hard on Jesus today to keep their eyes and heart upon His presence and His relationship instead of being carried away with the costly business of living here on earth.

Dear Jesus, remind us daily we pray that You are here and alive.  Keep us focused first upon You in all our ways so that we do not give in as some have done and let other things like money get between us.  Help us adjust ourselves first to You so that we may be safe from the attack of financial evil.  Let us press on hard to seek You and Your presence.  Only in focusing our efforts there will we be able to hold the demanding world at bay. As long as we live here in this society that runs by financial means, let us never see it like that, but rather by You.  You have a plan and You are in control.  We would live and feed from You alone.  So the business of financial distractions we lift up and offer up to You.  Take them from us and leave us to the important work of concentrating ourselves on our relationship with You.

Amen