It's easy to admire success without asking what it cost spiritually. A devotional on guarding your heart from the love of money and keeping Christ as your true example.
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
— 1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV)
I'll admit something. I scroll past stories of people's financial success sometimes and feel a quiet pull — admiration, maybe a little envy — without ever asking what it cost them to get there. Paul's warning to Timothy interrupts that for me today.
It's not money itself that Paul is warning against. It's what happens when love of money takes the seat that belongs only to God. And what strikes me is how gradual that drift usually is. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to abandon their faith for wealth. It happens in smaller decisions — a little more time chasing gain, a little less time in prayer, a little more comparing myself to people who seem to have more than I do.
I don't think I've drifted far. But I also know I'm not immune to drifting at all. That's the uncomfortable part of reading this today — recognizing that the danger isn't dramatic collapse, it's slow erosion I might not notice until I'm already far from where I started.
Ellen White's words feel like a redirect, not a rebuke:
"Jesus has opened to everyone a way by which wisdom, grace, and power may be obtained. He is our example in all things, and nothing should divert the mind from the main object in life, which is to have Christ in the soul, melting and subduing the heart."
— Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, pp. 277–278
That phrase — "melting and subduing the heart" — is what I actually want, more than I want comparison to stop hurting. I don't just want to manage envy better. I want my heart genuinely shaped by something other than what the world calls success.
So today, instead of asking God to make me content with less, I'm asking Him to make Christ the actual center again — not a competing interest alongside ambition, but the main object Paul and Ellen White both point to.
🙏 Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are meant to be my example in all things, not just the things that don't cost me anything. Forgive me for the moments I've let comparison or ambition quietly compete with my devotion to You. Melt and subdue my heart again today. Let You — not what I have or don't have — be the main object of my life. In Your name, Amen.
— Kay, Abide Daily Ministry
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Abide Daily Ministry
Christ-centered daily devotionals to help you abide in Jesus.