“The Christian is given the high calling of using mammon without serving mammon. We are using mammon when we allow God to determine our economic decisions. We are serving mammon when we allow mammon to determine our economic decisions. We simply must decide who is going to make our decisions–God or mammon.
Do we buy a particular home on the basis of the call of God, or because of the availability of money? Do we buy a new car because we can afford it, or because God instructed us to buy a new car? If money determines what we do or do not do, then money is our boss. If God determines what we do or do not do, then God is our boss. My money mights say to me, “You have enough to buy that,” but my God might say to me, “I don’t want you to have it,” Now, who am I to obey?
Most of us allow money to dictate our decisions: what kind of house we live in, what vacation we will take, what job we will hold. Money decides. Suppose Carolynn [my wife] says to me, “Let’s do this or that,” and I complain, “But we don’t have enough money!” What has happened? Money decided. You see I did not say, “Well, honey, let’s pray together and see if God wants us to do it.” No money made the decision. Money is my master. I am serving money.”
Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1985) 56.