Devotional: Greed Is a Form of Idolatry

After encouragement from the worship leader at church, I decided to start a short daily devotional. But before I start, I skimmed the inspirational verses on the homepage of Bible.com. The one from yesterday was very apropos to my issues:

Ephesians 5:25-26: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word...

When this happens (and it happens often, though not 100%), I feel it's God speaking to me. He's placed many well-placed passages in my life.

What it says to me:
This short verse tells me that no matter how mean your spouse is, you should love your spouse. First, because Christ did it (loved a group of people - the church! Just think of how many more issues a group of people have!), and we're trying to follow Christ's example. Second, that it's a sacrificial love - that you give yourself up for the other person without expecting anything in return. Like Christ gave himself up for sinners, the other person will be rotten at times. Don't expect perfection. This is one of the miracles of Christ - as Paul says, we might give ourselves up for a good man, but an evil one? Who would die for an evil one except Christ? Third, this loving and giving ourselves up for our spouse is in order to sanctify and cleanse them. The verse, if you continue reading, finishes with presenting the church (or our spouses) as holy and blameless before God. This is for God's glory.

Devotion
On to today's devotion:

 Colossians 3:5: Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

The part that struck me out of all this (and believe me, I like instruction manuals on how to live!) is that greed is a form of idolatry. It's true: we feel like we need an item, and in a sense, we are worshiping it. I'm not sure if the rest (evil, and elsewhere it says anger) are also included in that amounting to idolatry, but when I first read through this verse, my heart focused on greed.

What am I greedy for? At times, new things to keep up with the Joneses, I have to admit. A good and peaceful life. What else is an idol in my life? If I'm not careful, Star Wars can be, or my novel, or this idea of peace and meditation. What am I greedy for now? New clothes/toys for my child. The best things for the baby.

Prayer: Dear God, help me to not be greedy. Help me to focus on you and realize that all good things, and all peace, comes from you. Amen

Update: sure enough, greed came up yesterday afternoon (I was waiting to see how it was going to make an appearance). I hadn't told my spouse about my devotional, and Spouse brought up trying not to be jealous of people who had more things than we did. We also visited people who had a much larger and nicer house on a lot of land, and lots of wilderness resources that Spouse and I would love to have. I did find myself thinking on the way home, wondering how they made their money, so that we might be able to follow a similar route. However, I was thinking, do I really want a big house? Do I really care it's on the water? I realized that God gives me everything and could snap His fingers tomorrow and give me a mansion and lots of wealth if He wanted to. Which means we are right now where He wants us. And I'm content with that. He's given us just the right amount of resources to pursue Him. I think any more would be a stumbling block.