We in the church are scared of money. I mean that…scared! Scared of having too little; scared of having too much; scared of what God will think of how we use it; scared even more of what people think of how we use it! (Isn’t that sad?)
This morning, on my prayer walk, Father encouraged me to “build my barns”. For those of you that don’t know, we do NOT live on a farm, much to our dismay, and I don’t believe our tiny town lot would support much of a barn…
As Christians, we feel we need to apologize for, or at least excuse, our attempts to increase our wealth. “Look at the Rich Young Ruler!”, we cry. “He was told to sell everything and donate it to the United Way!” Hmmm, good point. But what was Jesus really concerned about when he gave the young man that instruction? Was it his money? Was the Kingdom of God running a deficit for that quarter and needed a last minute boost to meet projections? I kinda think not. Our God is a God of limitless abundance and He has no need. If we fail to give when God says “Give”, the Kingdom doesn’t suffer a loss – we do. We suffer the loss of blessing at participating in providing for someone else. If we don’t obediently give, God has an infinite number of sources from which to replace that gift.
So what was Jesus after? Knowing the character of God, I’m guessing He was more interested in the man’s heart than his money. The young man had wrapped his hopes, his faith and his identity in his money. Jesus wanted to break that before He could use him in His service.
“OK, Jeff, we got that point. The heart’s more important than the wallet. That doesn’t necessarily sanction the accumulation of wealth.” True, but once again, we are looking at the wrong issue. God isn’t impressed or intimidated by how much money we have, or don’t have. He is after our hearts. Are we building wealth to hoard it for our “retirement”? Or are we building it because we’ll need it to hedge against the next disaster right around the corner? If so, I believe we’re relying too much on money as our security.
On the opposite side, do we give away money as fast as it comes in? Doesn’t matter what ministry, just get it out of our house! Or do we tithe 20%, 25%, 30% hoping God is impressed with our sacrifice, while our bills go late and we can’t buy groceries? Now we’re operating out of fear.
Whatever attributes we place on money, they are wrong. Money is simply a tool for God’s purposes. It has no motivation, no agenda. If we try to personify it, we are attributing power to an object that has no power; and power belongs only to God.
Do we desire money? Only God is worthy of our desire. Do we fear money? Only God is worthy of our fear.
So how does all this justify building barns? Isn’t that indicative of hoarding? Well, it depends once again on your heart. Are you going to strut around on your barn roof like Nebuchadnezzar saying, “Look at this glorious barn that I built for my glory!” Living in Amish country as I do, I have seen people glorying in their barns, but I’m pretty certain you’re not Amish (unless your computer is powered by kerosene).
Or, are you thinking like Joseph, storing up God’s provision so when He calls for it, it’s ready? Not out of fear, but out of obedience, knowing that 100% of our wealth belongs to Father and He can call for any percentage of it any time for any purpose He so desires. With this thought in mind, I want to build up as much as possible, so I have a lot of resources for Father to use. I want to participate in all kinds of movements of the Spirit. I want to be used again and again and again for the building of the Kingdom. So, bring it on! Let’s build some wealth!
Oh yeah, gotta have barns to store it in…
2 Comments
July 17, 2007 at 8:55 pm
So when we live in the country, will our computer be run on kerosene? And does kerosene support cable connections or are we back to dial up speeds?
Just wondering….
Oh, and about building a barn here – I think if you went behind the garden, you could put a small shed type building there and if you painted it red, we could call it a barn. Couldn’t store much in it though. Great great great great (etc) Uncle Joseph wouldn’t be too pleased with the size of your barn…. Guess we’ll have to move!
July 22, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Amen and Amen! I’ve talked with lots of good-willed Christian men over the years about personal finance and I’ve found we are even uncomfortable with discussing living debt free. Thank you for sharing your encouraging words and perspective on barns.