“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Matthew 25:25-29 (ESV)
GREED AND FEAR
So much of greed is driven by fear. We fear not being able to take care of our family or ourselves. We fear what trials the future may bring. We fear what other people think of us. We fear that we are missing out. All of these fears can manifest as greed in our lives.
We don’t know what Zacchaeus feared, but he was certainly afraid. Grown men do not hide in trees unless they are scared. After his encounter with Jesus, this fear changes. Zacchaeus states his future fearless intentions:
“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.'” (Luke 19:8)
He chooses not just to move on with his life and do better but to face those he has wronged and make amends. Confronting the people he has cheated would be a frightening prospect, yet this verse shows that he is moving past the fear that once drove him to live greedily in the first place.
Take a moment and pray. Ask God to show you the areas of fear in your life where you are holding back from others and from Him. Ask Him to replace that fear with peace, and from that peace, let generosity flow. Ask God to reveal if there are people you have wronged because of fear, and ask Him for the courage to make things right.
Chris Boggess is the Next Generation/Family Pastor at NorthStar Church. He grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia, and still cheers for the Mountaineers. He and his wife, Heather, have two grown children and one granddaughter.
