This past Sunday our church began an emphasis on God's Economy and the Bounty of God. Pastor Keith did an excellent job in sharing from 2 Kings 4:1-7 about Elisha and the Widows oil. You might want to go to the churches website and download the message (Elisha and the Bounty of God, Part 1). It will be well worth your time.
In the beginning of the message he touched on a point that made me think. The point was that we need a biblical view of God's economy. He gave Third John 2 as a reference for those who preach the "Prosperity Gospel". But then he gave James 2:5 as a reference for those who preach the "Poverty Gospel". We have probably heard dynamic speakers from both of these camps.
But what is God's view on exactly how much money we should have? Pastor Keith went on to reference 1 Timothy 6:17-19 which gives a balanced look of God's view of our finances. We discussed these verses on this blog a few posts back in God's Economy "The Cliff notes Version". You might want to check that post out to refresh your memory.
It seems to me that many of God's principles on money are given in the form of balance. Proverbs 21:20 tells us to save, but Ecclesiastes 5:13 tells us to be careful of saving too much. Joseph and even Paul heeded the advice of Luke 14:28 and Proverbs 21:5 which encourage us to plan. After all, a budget is nothing more than a year by year plan of how we will spend our money. But what does God's Word tell us about planning in Proverbs 3:5,6? Trust God and not our plans.
How about getting advice? Proverbs 12:15 tells us to get counsel, but Proverbs 14:15 tells us that listening to everyone is being naïve.
So what is the point here? The point is that God does not want us to be overly focused on savings, planning, riches, poverty or the other aspects of our finances. He wants us to focus on Him. That is what God's economy is all about. It is allowing God to use money to direct our attention to Him and not allowing money to divert our attention away from Him. Any extreme can take our focus off God and fix our focus on the extreme. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 19:24 it is difficult for a rich man to get into heaven. Not that the riches are wrong, they are certainly not. But it is pretty easy to get our eyes off of God and onto the riches.
It is also easy to get our focus off God and onto our poverty, or planning, savings or getting counsel for that matter. I believe this is why in God's economy the best place for us to be is in the middle. Financially in the middle keeps us away from the temptation of too much attention on the money we have or the money we do not have. Proverbs says it best in Proverbs 30:8b. Don't make me rich or don't make me poor. Give me a financial balance in my life where the temptations of focusing on my poverty or my prosperity do not get in the way of focusing on God. – George Hutchison shares his biblically-based thoughts on finances in his blog, Stewardship Insight. He is an instructor with Crown Financial and serves on the Board of America’s Keswick.
Compass Pointers: Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation, regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong. Just as what we may call holiness without love is not God's kind of holiness, so also what we may call love without holiness, is not God's kind of love...A false spirit of accommodation is sweeping the world as well as the Church, including those who claim the label of evangelical.
Francis A. Schaeffer
Francis A. Schaeffer
Navigation Rules: Level 1: Proverbs 1: 7; Level 2: Proverbs 1:1-7
Anchored to the Rock: Avail yourself to the greatest privilege this side of heaven – prayer! Jesus Christ died to make this communion and communication with the Father possible. – Billy Graham
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