August 29 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

Marriage and money do not belong to the unshakable things that we will take along into the abiding city. The value of sex and money are vastly overrated today. To most of our sensual neighbors, sex and money are the two things that make life worth living. Magazines and conversations focus constantly on these two topics, and the person who is reported to have a lot of both is a celebrity.

Sex and money are legitimate joys in the present world if they are rightly used. Of course it's a sin to use your marriage partner instead of loving him or her. Of course it's a sin to love money instead of using it. But both marriage and money are right and good—if the marriage is honorable and if the money is the servant of the servants of God.

The art of Christian living is to order and direct your life in such a way that first things receive priority while all other things are given their proper place. It's like your house. Fire burns in the furnace, which is its good and proper place. But if the fire eats the furniture in the living room, the whole house is in ruins. If sex and money have their proper place in the house of your life, they add to the joy and warmth of Christian living. But if they are allowed to enter where they don't belong, the fire runs wild and the house is destroyed.

God has assigned our sexual expressions a place. They are good and beautiful in that place: "Marriage should be honored by all." But God "will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral," even when our society finds such behavior quite acceptable.

Money, like sex, is a gift of God to be used responsibly. But when it becomes the god you love, you cannot keep the faith that sings: "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid" (v. 6).

REFLECTIONS

What would you list as the top ten priorities in your life?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.