Mobile Daily Devotional

Greed has no limit. When you look at what people do, this proverb rings true. People with power will take the little that their poor neighbors have. Some people will do anything to gain wealth. That goes for the 17th century slave traders who ruined tens of thousands of lives in Africa. It also goes for the 19th century European colonialists and for powerful African chieftains who conquered neighboring peoples. And it goes for the wealthy individuals in Nigeria today who take the land from the powerless so they can use it for their own purposes and gain wealth.

What does the Bible say? The Old Testament prophets condemned greed and exploitation so many times that it’s hardly worth quoting any one particular verse. In the New Testament, John the Baptist and James do the same. But Paul’s epistles go even further when they equate greed with idolatry, the greatest sin of all (see Col. 3:5 for one example). Greed isn’t the acquisition of many goods, but the willingness to do so at the expense of others, and to make material goods more important than God.

This month, you will not hear the word “greed” in every prayer entry, but it will be the underlying theme. There seems to be a spiritual stronghold in West Africa that needs to be broken so that Christ may be glorified. Let us pray for this to happen.