When you think about money, when you are concerned about it, you bog yourself down. Much of the time, when you think about money, you are bemoaning the lack of it. Innocently, you put yourself back into the need mode. When do you feel you have enough money, beloveds?

Money is not the mainspring of your life. It is meant to be a convenience. It's easier to carry around paper than gold. Paper takes up much less space in your pocket. A nice convenience. Money is not meant to be the focus of your life. How much you earn, or how much you have saved, how much you have lost are not the substance of you.

Even so, how you spend money, whether you are generous or whether you stint, whether you hold on or let go, reveals you. How you are with money may well be a metaphor for your life. How you deal with money may well be how you deal with love.

Not that love is meant to be dealt with. Love is just to be.

Once in a while there is someone who has a lot of money and is reluctant to part with it. He wants to be loved for himself. He fears people will love him for his money only. And, yes, there are those in the world who would.

Sometimes there is someone who is very generous with money, and he sees this as the way to receive love. In a sense, he buys love, for he has yet to learn his worth.

And then, as in the story of The Three Bears, there is one who is just right. He is generous for no other motive but to nurture the world. Like his life, his money is not for himself alone. It is not even his, you understand. He knows it is not his to flaunt nor his to keep nor even his to spend. He understands that the money bequeathed him is Mine. He understands that he is the bookkeeper or accountant. He carries the cash for Me. That he has money is a gift, and he wishes to pass on the gift. He is a free-giver.

It is not that he feels he owes. It is not from a sense of obligation that he donates his wealth. A sense of responsibility is different from a sense of obligation. It is not that he has a debt to pay. It is that the money is not his possession, and yet he has say over it, and he wishes to use his money for the good of the universe, for this is his place in the world. He knows the importance of what he does. He knows he turns the tide of the world. He knows that he donates to Me.

Sometimes those who have the least give the most. They are wealthy.

This world you live in is to be shared. Share your heart because it is the natural thing to do. Your heart is your wealth. Stinginess with money may reveal stinginess of the heart.

Sometimes the expenditure of money is control. The one who holds the purse-strings is the controller. Yet money is not meant to be a whip to goad others to dance to the controller's tune. Let your money be a balm to the world. Free the world, not command it.

Are you your brother's keeper? That thought may make you feel burdened and your heart sink. It's not like that. You are not to feel burdened. You are not all responsible for your brother's actions, inactions, nor poverty. He is responsible for himself. Yet, you, too, however, are responsible for yourself, and that means you keep an eye out for your brother and see that he is not in poverty. You stand in for Me, and you serve Me, and so you serve the commonwealth of man on Earth, and this is your gratitude to Me, beloveds, not the words you say.