Your Cheating Heart













And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”


The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.

 

Many years ago, the prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” And, then, speaking for God, he wrote, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve” (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Some of us, like the Pharisees in today’s passage, are all about how others see us. If they see us as good people, then we figure we’re fine. However, we should be concerned about how God sees us because ultimately he is going to judge us. No? 

 

And God knows our hearts. Our claims that we love him don’t hold any water if our hearts are divided. “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Our attachment to anything of the world suggests a divided heart, but because money is a unique barometer of the human condition, Jesus makes a mention of it here. Many of us can be parted from anything, except money. This attachment is an “abomination” in the sight of God. That’s a strong word, but it’s Jesus’ not mine.

 

Why? James might have an answer. He wrote: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). So, when we prize the things of the world, rather than God, we are effectively “cheating” on God. But what are the things of the world? Scripture describes these as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:15)

 

What are these? The lust of the flesh? The lust of the eyes? The pride of life? I’d like us to think about what these might be and ask ourselves which ones we might be guilty of. And, then, let us be brave enough to make David’s prayer to God. He said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 1239:23-24). It takes a lot of courage to ask God to search our hearts and reveal what’s offensive in them.

 

But I believe if we can do this and take the necessary steps to correct whatever’s wrong we will be blessed.


Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here:https://youtu.be/2Bqn2EXNpLo


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