Several verses in the Bible scare me. It isn’t the verses that scare me. It is not knowing my own heart very well.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

They scare me because I don’t know how much money controls my life, and the consequences are severe. I don’t know how much the pleasures of life and the things I own control my life. I say that I love God and say, “I love You, Jesus,” every night when I go to bed, but do I?

I often tell Patty that I love her and have written out ten commitments that my “I love you” to Patty means. The first one is, “You are the only woman in my life, physically, mentally, and emotionally.” I work very hard to control my thoughts, what and where I look, and avoid tempting situations. I have not been perfect at controlling my thoughts and eyes, but I think I am doing pretty well and always getting better.

The point is, I have a good idea of how I am doing being a “one-woman man,” but how well am I loving only God and not money or the world? I am not sure, and that scares me. It isn’t the amount of money we have or don’t have as much as our total focus on God as the source of our joy and security.

It is worth thinking about.