11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
The Lord gives us resources to be stewarded and used for his kingdom. I have to admit that I have missed this prayer many times… I have been thinking about this question this morning and I sit shaking my head as I am listening to the Lord tell me he wants to be involved in every area of my life even to the minuet and mundane details! Lord please grant us wisdom to recognize you want to be Lord over every area of our lives including the money you give us!
Money is such an incredible subject especially how it relates to God's kingdom. I listen attentively to people as they speak about money especially believers. I listened to a young man recently tell of his goal to make two million dollars before he turned 40 years old. I was shaken… as all I could see in his life was a drive to make money. This drive is making this man miserable and little by little hardening his heart. Paul wrote, I have had much and I have had little but to be content is the key (Phil. 4:11-12). Jesus was clear about how deceptive our heart can be when it comes to money. The Bible is clear about "the love of money is the root of all evil" and how covetousness is lurking to slip in and pervert our motives.
Now one of the secondary benefits of kingdom living is prosperity. God wants to proper his servants for the purpose of bringing his kingdom to the earth. Jesus was not a poor beggarly man nor was he covetous. He dealt with business leaders and called money people into discipleship, Matthew, Judas, Peter, Zacheus, etc… his purpose was to bring his kingdom to the earth. Jesus family had wealth by God's divine intervention of the wise men seeking out the King (gifts of gold, frankincense, & myrrh). When you seek him you will find him!
The disciple's personal wealth and influence were given to them for the purpose to promote God's kingdom on the earth (make Jesus known to ALL men). When we don't pray about how we spend the resources entrusted into us our tendency is to heap it upon ourselves with bigger and better and throwing moderation to the wind.
Hebrews 13:5
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.
1 comment:
I have gotten more and more careful about what I watch on TV lately watching out for bad language, adultry, imorality and "bad news" but in my quest to clean up my mind I stumbled on another more sublte evil "home improvement television" after just a few hours of this seemingly wholesome entertainment I found myself with a deep desire to spend money to fix up (my perfectly fine) home! I found myself feeling covetous of what I imagine others to have, deeply dissatisfied with what I have, to the point of not wanting to have anyone visit my house for fear of their judgement of my "stuff" and I am a home group host! If that's not the devil working on us I don't know what is!
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