Controlled by Money?
I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the power of money in the lives of people. If asked, “Do you think you are controlled by money”, most people would give an overwhelming “No, of course not!” However, in the next couple minutes you will see how easy it is to be controlled by money.
Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer who, when arriving at your drivers side window asks, “Do you know how fast you were going?” With a quick response you low ball your answer closer to the actual speed limit to avoid a possible speeding ticket. Why do we do this? In most cases it’s to avoid paying the fine. If that is the case, we are controlled by money.
Have you ever been under-charged for items you were purchasing at the store, but never mentioned it? Have you ever accidentally broke something that wasn’t yours, but didn’t mention it hoping that the person you borrowed it from wouldn’t notice? Have you ever returned a movie late, but argued that it was at the store before it was due to avoid paying late fees? Have you ever downloaded or obtained mp3’s, burned CD’s or DVD’s in order to save a buck? Have you ever rounded up the time worked on your timesheet at work? Have you ever used a single licence software program on multiple computers? Have you ever complained about your food at the restaurant because it wasn’t to your liking in order to receive a discount off the bill?
These are just a few examples of things that people do everyday to avoid paying money. Whatever happened to honesty and integrity? What happened to ethics?
Don’t get me wrong, it is good to be thrifty and make your hard earned dollars go further, but I am not talking about being thrifty. I am talking about lying, cheating and finding loops holes in the system. These are not Christian traits nor are they fruits of the Spirit. Really, IT’S JUST MONEY!
When I gave my life to Christ in 1998, I needed good Christian music to listen to instead of the radio or secular music. I wanted to fill my life with positive, rather than negative. I got into MP3’s and had downloaded over 3500 Christian MP3’s. God began to work on my heart. I felt like I needed to buy the music to support the ministry of the band or musician, rather than stealing from them, because that is what it is. I asked God to help me afford to purchase new/used Christian CD’s to replace my MP3 collection. Within months, I got rid of all the MP3’s that I didn’t own the CD of. It wasn’t a hard decision because I had God on my side. I knew that He would help me, AND HE DID.
What are your thoughts? Do you know of any examples of the things that we do to save a little money?? Are we controlled by money more than we think?
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