QFD | Treasured : Entry 4 - When Money Reshapes Desire

Treasured : ENTRY 4 - When Money Reshapes Desire

The Slow Drift of the Soul

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”—Matthew 6:22–23 (ESV)

The Drift Begins with a Glance

Every desire begins with a glance.

Jesus places this teaching between His warnings about treasure (vv. 19–21) and His teaching about two masters (v. 24). It is not accidental. It is surgical.

He is telling us this:

• Desire is shaped by whatever we fix our attention on.

• Where attention goes, affection follows.

Money enters this equation quietly—not by force, not by demand, but by influence. It doesn't merely lure us toward wealth; it gradually reshapes what we value, what we fear, what we pursue, and even what we call “enough.”

Desire, once bent slightly, begins to drift. And the drift is almost invisible at first.

How Money Reshapes Desire

Money reshapes desire in two slow ways:

1. By widening what we think is possible

When we have the means to acquire more, the mind begins to imagine more. Imagination becomes expectation. Expectation becomes entitlement.

Desire shifts quietly from contentment to consumption.

2. By normalizing comfort as the baseline

Comfort is not sinful. But when comfort becomes the standard rather than the gift, desire becomes distorted.

The heart begins to crave:

• ease over endurance,

• insulation over intimacy,

• preference over surrender,

• indulgence over obedience.

This drift is subtle—and powerful.

Paul describes this with sober clarity:

“Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”—1 Timothy 6:9 (ESV)

Notice the sequence:

desire → temptation → snare → harmful desires → ruin

It always begins with desire.

The Drift No One Notices

I've felt this drift in myself—not always through major choices but through small internal shifts:

• a quiet longing for a life with fewer limits,

• a subtle expectation that comfort should be normal,

• a creeping impatience with anything that feels inconvenient,

• a preference for what improves my lifestyle rather than deepens my obedience.

These movements are soft, silent, and respectable. But they can bend the soul.

Proverbs puts it plainly:

“All a person's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs motives.”—Proverbs 16:2 (CSB)

When money begins reshaping desire, the motives become harder to discern—even to ourselves.

The Eye as a Window

Jesus' metaphor of the eye is not about eyesight—it is about orientation, and more specifically, generosity.

In Jewish wisdom literature:

• the healthy eye meant single-minded generosity

• the bad eye meant stinginess or self-protective grasping

Deuteronomy warns against looking at a needy brother with a “bad eye” (Deut. 15:9).Proverbs cautions that “a stingy man hastens after wealth” (Prov. 28:22).

Jesus is not speaking abstractly. He is addressing how we use money.

• A healthy eye looks toward God and neighbor, letting His light shape desire into generosity.

• A bad eye looks toward self—grasping, calculating, self-protective—letting darkness reshape desire from the inside out.

This reveals something profound:

• Desire follows direction.

• Direction is determined by attention.

• Attention is where the battle for formation is fought.

Where the eyes wander, the heart soon follows.

Desire and the War of Devotion

Money does not only tempt us to sinful actions—it tempts us to disordered affections.

Jesus spoke directly to this:

“For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”—Matthew 6:32–33 (ESV)

The contrast is not merely what is sought but why.

• The Gentiles—those without covenant relationship—pursue material security because they have no Father who knows their needs.

• But kingdom people are freed from this anxiety precisely because the Father provides.

Money alters desire by:

• reframing what matters,

• magnifying what we fear,

• inflating what we want,

• minimizing what God values.

This is why Jesus places desire at the center of His teaching on treasure and masters.

He is not merely warning us about wealth—He is warning us about what our hearts are becoming.

Reordering Desire Through Christ

The gospel does not simply restrain desire—it reforms it.

God does not want to remove your desires; He wants to renew them.

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”—Psalm 37:4 (ESV)

This verse is often misunderstood. God is not promising to give us everything we want. The Hebrew word for “delight” means to take exquisite pleasure in, to luxuriate in the Lord Himself.

When the LORD becomes your delight, your desires align with His will—and those desires He grants.

The Spirit teaches us to:

• desire what pleases God,

• hunger for righteousness,

• long for His presence,

• value eternal things,

• crave obedience more than indulgence.

Desire becomes holy when Christ becomes treasure.

Practical Renewal: Redirecting the Gaze

1. Name the desire.

Hidden desires rule us. Named desires lose power.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”—Psalm 139:23–24 (ESV)

2. Surrender the desire.

Say aloud: “Lord, shape this want into whatever pleases You.”

3. Replace the gaze.

Where you look is where the heart walks.

4. Practice gratitude.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”—1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)

Gratitude starves disordered desire.

5. Seek what deepens obedience,

not what increases comfort

These small acts redirect the heart toward God’s light.

Diagnostic Questions for Today

• What have I begun to imagine simply because I can afford it?

• Where is comfort quietly becoming my baseline?

• Which desires deepen my faith, and which dilute it?

• What do my eyes linger on when I'm tired, bored, or anxious?

• Where is Jesus inviting me to look again?

Christ-Shaped Closure

The cross is where desire is purified. Christ did not die merely to restrain your desires—He died to redeem you, and in that redemption, your desires are made new.

Paul grounds this transformation in resurrection:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”—Colossians 3:1–3 (ESV)

Notice the order:

• You have been raised — the indicative.

• Seek the things above — the imperative.

This is not moral advice. This is resurrection logic. We can redirect desire because we died and rose with Christ. The power precedes the command.

We seek above because we are above—hidden with Christ in God.

In Christ:

• desire is reoriented,

• affection is restored,

• vision is cleared,

• devotion is renewed.

Money reshapes desire slowly. Christ reshapes it completely.

Let your eyes look to Him today—and let your heart follow where His light leads.