You ask me how you are to cast this unclean spirit out of your heart?
I think I can tell you.
In the first place, make up your mind that by the grace of God you
will overcome the spirit of selfishness. You must overcome it, or it
will overcome you. Paul said: "Mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which
things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience."
I heard of a rich man who was asked to make a contribution on behalf
of some charitable object. The text was quoted to him--"He that hath
pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given
will He pay him again." He said that the security might be good
enough, but the credit was too long. He was dead within two weeks. The
wrath of God rested upon him as he never expected.
If you find yourself getting very miserly, begin to scatter, like a
wealthy farmer in New York state I heard of. He was a noted miser, but
he was converted. Soon after, a poor man who had been burned out and
had no provisions, came to him for help. The farmer thought he would
be liberal and give the man a ham from his smoke-house. On his way to
get it, the tempter whispered to him:
"Give him the smallest one you have."
He had a struggle whether he would give a large or a small ham, but
finally he took down the largest he could find.
"You are a fool," the devil said.
"If you don't keep still," the farmer replied, "I will give him every
ham I have in the smoke house."
Mr. Durant told me he woke up one morning to find that he was a rich
man, and he said that the greatest struggle of his life then took
place as to whether he would let money be his master, or he be master
of money, whether he would be its slave, or make it a slave to him. At
last he got the victory, and that was how Wellesley College came to be
built.
In the next place, cultivate the spirit of contentment. "Let your
conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things
as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not
fear what man shall do unto me."
Contentment is the very opposite of covetousness, which is continually
craving for something it does not possess. "Be content with such
things as ye have," not worrying about the future, because God has
promised never to leave or forsake you. What does the child of God
want more than this? I would rather have that promise than all the
gold of the earth.
Would to God we might all be able to say with Paul--"I have coveted no
man's silver, or gold, or apparel." The Lord had made him partaker of
His grace, and he was soon to be a partaker of His glory, and earthly
things looked very small. "Godliness with contentment is great gain,"
he wrote to Timothy; "having food and raiment, therewith let us be
content." Observe that he puts godliness first. No worldly gain can
satisfy the human heart. Roll the whole world in, and still there
would be room.
May God tear the scales off our eyes if we are blinded by this sin.
Oh, the folly of it, that we should set our heart's affections upon
anything below! "For we brought nothing into this world, and it is
certain we can carry nothing out. . . . Be thou not afraid when one is
made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth
he shall take nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him."