What is Your Heart Set On?
Psalm 62:5-12
“... Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”
- Psalm 62:10
Five years ago this week, overwhelmed by student debt and a pattern of too much month at the end of the money, I reluctantly began a 9-week personal finance class at an area church. Ignoring my stress-inducing finances had not been working out on my end and, if I was honest, I knew I was getting in the way of how God wanted me to manage the money he was entrusting to me. I learned how to prioritize my finances and have been on a journey towards debt freedom ever since.
The first time I read today’s passage, I made a hard stop after verse 10’s “Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.” I thought, Why the pause? I’m not making loads of money, so how could my heart be set on riches?Searching commentaries for a better understanding of “do not set your heart on [riches]”, one redefined it as “do not make an idol of it”, which didn’t resonate. A second went deeper, stating that “to set the heart upon riches, means more than simply to covet the possession of them. It implies being carried away by them into a false confidence.” That explained the pause!
If confidence is firm trust, then false confidence is false firm trust, which is very unsettling, whether given intentionally or unknowingly. For me, the goal of being debt free is a good thing, and yet after reading verse 10, I realize I have placed false firm trust in the financial security and peace of mind I am counting on it to offer. Without realizing it, money has become a false confidence, an idol.
Money is one of the more obvious things we place false confidence in, but there are endless options: career connections, a one-of-a-kind home, the perfect kids, the nicest vehicle, the respect of certain people, or attending the right schools. As Christians, it is so easy to elevate good things from God to a higher place than they are meant to hold. What about you—are you gaining false confidence by setting your heart on something other than God, even if it’s a “good” thing?
The great news is that God does not just open our eyes to the false confidences we hold; he reminds us, again and again, that the only one to set our hearts on, to place our hope and confidence in, is him. Verses 5-8 bring us back to that,
“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”
Amen!
~ Nicole Mulder
