Pleasure depends on circumstances, but Christian joy is completely independent of health, money, or surroundings.

Tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think about God, for these two are closely related. A man’s heart is closer to his wallet than anything else.

Money represents your time, your energy, your talents, your total personality converted into currency. We usually hold on to it tenaciously, yet it is uncertain in value and we cannot take it into the next world.

The Bible warns that money cannot buy happiness! Money cannot buy true pleasure. Money cannot buy peace of heart. And money certainly cannot buy entrance into the kingdom of God.

We have tried to enthrone the false gods of money, fame, and human intelligence; but however we try, the end is always the same: “It is appointed unto men once to die” [Hebrews 9:27 KJV].

The Internal Revenue Service wants a record of how you spend your money, but that is nothing compared to the books God is keeping.

Money takes our minds off God.

Covetousness puts money above manhood. It shackles its devotee and makes him its victim. It hardens the heart and deadens the noble impulses and destroys the vital qualities of life.

Today we are putting our hopes in materialism, in technological progress, and in freedom from moral absolutes. They have all failed. They’ve failed because they’ve been powerless to change the human heart. What is the answer? There is hope, if we will turn to God.