“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” ~ Matthew 6:24
Sometimes as an author it’s tempting to take our eyes off of the real reason that we do what we do. It’s tempting to shift the focus from glorifying Christ, to supporting our families financially. I’ve been there recently. I’ll be honest, our family has been in a rough spot and I thought that maybe, just maybe if I could finish the book projects that I was working on, then we wouldn’t have to worry about it. Or maybe if I could increase my affiliate sales, things would improve. After all, I know several writers that are making a living from their book royalties and/or affiliate sales (and I have been one of them in the past), and I really believe that someday God has that in store for me again. But I also know that today isn’t that day. It doesn’t simply happen overnight, and if I take my eyes off of serving God, then it wouldn’t be worth it anyway.
Jesus made it very clear that we cannot serve two masters. If I’m writing for Christ, then I can’t be concerned about the income that comes from it. If I’m writing to make more money, then I can’t be writing for Christ. Yet I’m sure that you can relate, that earning money for our work makes it feel even more valuable; and earning money isn’t a bad thing.
It’s when we do what we do for the money, instead of for Christ that it becomes a problem.
