There’s no question about how much God loves us. The Bible tells us that we need to ‘grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ’ (Ephesians 3:18 NIV). But how much do we love Him? If we want to measure the depth of our love for God, we can start by looking at our calendar and our bank account. Basically, the way we spend our time and our money can show us how much we love God. When we love someone, we want to spend time with them. Are we committing our time to developing a relationship with God? When we’d rather be doing our thing than spending time with God, we know He’s no longer our top priority. And our finances can show us whether we’ve made money our focus. Whether we’re held back by constantly saving because we’re worrying about the future or whether we’re spending frivolously and selfishly, we need to stop and ask ourselves whether we’re putting money above God. When Jesus was talking about the kingdom, He used an analogy about a merchant who was looking for pearls. ‘When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.’ He knew what he was looking for, and when he found it he was willing to sacrifice everything he had just so he could have it. Jesus is like that pearl of great value. When we truly seek Him and get to know Him, we’re prepared to sacrifice everything else just to have Him in our lives. The way we handle our money and our time become centred on Him. And we no longer desire anything but Him. We live with Jesus first.

What Now?

Spend some time thinking about how you spend your time and money. Do they show that Jesus is first in your life? If not, come up with some changes you can practically make.