When it comes to my family's financial needs, God has never failed to come through. Never!
Psalm 24:1 says that the earth is the Lord's and all it contains. My sinful heart says, "The amount in my bank account, or lack thereof, is mine and all it does or does not contain." With this attitude, my disposition and identity are dependent on how much money I have or don't have.
If I humble my heart prayerfully and acknowledge that it all belongs to God, I am free from feeling either pride, complacency, or shame based on my bank account. My confidence and boast are solely in the Lord.
The Holy Spirit has revealed to me how self-reliant I am when it comes to money. I have felt a lot of shame that I haven't made a decent income lately. I am constantly reminded of the verse that says that the man who doesn't provide for his family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. I do not think that verse applies to me because I am truly trying. However, I am still tempted to think that the words do describe me. But this perspective changes when I stop looking at God through a lens of self-reliance.
When I was working as a teacher and making more money than I am making now, I rarely thought about how my needs were being provided by the Lord. I was applying my hard-earned college degree to work a job that required long hours and much dedication. But who gave me the strength, life, breath, and intelligence to earn that degree? Who kept my heart beating so that I could wake up every morning and drive to work?
Trip Lee's new album has a song called "Limitations." In the last verse of this song, Trip Lee says, "I know some people who ain't poor. They cruisin,' thinking, "Work hard!" but if the Lord ain't movin'..." He says a line or two later, "They should trust the Lord who supports they doin.'"
We have a tendency to rob the Lord of His due honor for creating us and giving us the ability to work and make a living. Instead, we just coast or find ourselves "cruisin'" like Trip Lee says, taking for granted that there is a loving and gracious God enabling us and blessing our lives. Or, even worse, we become arrogant and proud of our accomplishments, and we allow people to put us up on pillars because we seem to have it all together when it comes to the little god, money.
Only by God's grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit can I stop taking the Lord's hand in all of the affairs of my life for granted. It is my prayer that this becomes a reality for me and for all of us who call ourselves Christians.
I have so much more to write about this topic and so much praise to give God for never failing to come through. I will call this entry the first installment.
Talking about God coming through is really close to sounding irreverant. Instead, I will say that God, before the foundations of the earth, has had it all handled. "All" includes money (see Psalm 24:1).
I pray that this blesses and encourages you to give praise to the Creator, Maker, and Sustainer.
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God will always give us what we need when we need it. Love you bro!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Josh for stepping out and being vulnerable so that others might be encouraged in the Lord.
ReplyDeleteI think depnding upon where a person lives ie the United States or another county to a large degree can have a huge influence on the way we value oursleves and others. I see that in the United States and see it in myself, we've created a culture that places a lot of value on financial and material things. For example, when someone buys a new house, we congratuate that person, when someone buyers a new car we ooh and awh and so it goes as we grow up or we envy those that have those things, if we don't. As believers, of course we should be having our value system placed in our relationship with Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. However , as hard as we try, we live and breath this culture day in and day out and so when we find oursleves on the other end of this cultures value structure ie losing a house or losing a job etc, people aren't oohing and awing and we feel a sense of shame and failure and something is wrong with me. "NO", there is something wrong with the culture we live in. Just like when Nehamiah returned to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem, in chapter 13 of Nehemiah , Nehemiahs passion for God's Kingdom ( not man's Kingdom ) compells him to cleanse the temple, restore tithing, restore the the Sabbath and forbid mixed marriages. Though there was a physical wall broken down around Jerusalem in Nehamiah's day and with it more importantly a spritual wall broken down, I find in our country that our Spiritual wall has been broken down. I've found that in my own heart my spiritual wall had been broken down. I thank the Lord that He is in the business of restoring and redeeming. It's hard, this culture we live in is very influencial and lot's of good Christian folks have found themselves questioning their way of living, which if it leads to realigning with Jesus Kingdom and purpose, that is good.
A verse that has been very helpfull for me in checking my thinking is.
Colossians 3:1-5. "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in Glory."
Jesus isn't going to say, WOW!! nice house, or WOW!! great job on growing your 401-K to a million dollars just before you died or WOW!! I was really impressed by all the people who thought so highly of you, while you didn't love your wife, and lived a secret life or had an affair or whatever. Or WOW!! I was really impressed by all your degrees and how much you knew but weren't able to show kindness to the poor or mercy to those who needed it or compassion on the hurting, otherwise great job, heres your big star for "Man's Kingdom".
Anyway, the thought of the above makes me cringe and yet I can see at times some of that creeping up into my life and my value system but it's not God's value system.
Maybe the Lord will use this time to help restore His people's passion for His Kingdom and help others enter into a relationship with the Living God through His Son Jesus Christ and experience more of God's kingdom at work in their lives.
Thanks again for posting, great post.
Ernie