We are wrapping up the series on "Managing God's Money" and I have some take aways from it and the subject in general.
First, and nothing else will work if this is not your belief, we must realize that it is not our money, but God's money. As such, we are not "owners" we are "stewards". Given this fact, every decision we make concerning money is no longer a financial decision but a Spiritual decision.
The scripture reference is a well known one from the Gospel of Matthew 6:33 but it is normally not a good idea to just pull 1 verse alone without prior verses to set the context (especially since verse 33 starts with the word "but").
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Let's take a detailed look at these verses. The word "worry" is mentioned 6 times in this passage of scripture. This chapter is more about worry than money, but God knew that the largest source of our worry would be about money and material things. God knows that we in our human nature are natural "worry warts" or else He would have not been so emphatic in telling us not to worry. If you want to be technical, worry is actually mentioned 7 times, not 6, if you count the phrase "you of little faith" as another way of saying "worrier". We should be warriors for Christ, not worriers for ourselves. God can not use a worrier to do His will and work that He wants done on the earth; He will only use warriors. How does one become a warrior and not a worrier? Stay tuned for the answer.
Let's tighten the focus on verse 33 since that is the popular verse. Look at the first few words... "seek", "first" and "kingdom". Seek doesn't mean looking around hoping to find something (like those old seek and find puzzle books where we used to look for hidden words). The word seek here is talking about a deliberate pursuit. The way a thirsty man seeks out something cold to drink or the way a hungry man seeks out food. This is why in the beatitudes, Jesus says "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness". This is not something we are going to be able to obtain through osmosis, hearing a sermon, or having someone else bring it to us. We have to make the conscious effort to pursue it on our own with all we have. (kind of reminds you of the 1st commandment doesn't it?)
So we see what seek is and how important it is. Now go to the other word.. first. This speaks of priority. As followers of Christ, God doesn't just want a place in our lives or even to be a priority... He wants and demands preeminence. Jesus said in Luke 9:62 "“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” And why does He demand this? To be mean? Of course not. He demands this so that we do not become self sufficient, but God sufficient.
OK, on to Kingdom. What is the Kingdom? In this context it is not a literal geographical place. It is referring to a rule or reign. The Kingdom then is allowing God to be the dictator of your life.. the sole ruler. Who heads a kingdom? The King. What is the requirement of those living in the kingdom? To do what the king says. What is the obligation of the king? To take care of the needs of those in the kingdom. When we "seek first the kingdom" what we are doing is putting every area of our life (not just financial, but everything) in the King's hands and trusting Him to meet all our needs. Notice I said needs, not wants. God is smart enough not to always give us what we want, but He will always give us what we need.
Again, this goes back trust. You can not trust and worry at the same time. If you are worrying, then you really haven't fully trusted. It amazes me sometimes how people will trust God for their eternity but they don't trust Him to provide to pay a certain bill, keep them in good health or for basic transportation. As an aside, the word trust in the Greek is "pisteuo". Unfortunately, in most bibles the Greek word pisteuo is inaccurately translated "believe" instead of trust. Many people believe in God (make a mental ascent that there is a God), but for salvation we have to believe,trust, pisteuo that Christ's death, burial and resurrection is sufficient to pay our sin debt. This is known as the Gospel.
This then leads me back to my earlier statement that every decision we make concerning money is a Spiritual decision, not a financial one. If we parade every decision through the lens of two things then the decisions become quite clear and easy to make. The two tests are: 1) is this spending decision beneficial to the kingdom? and 2) is it adding to my righteousness.
So how do we know what is righteous for the kingdom? We have to know the King? We have to not just know about the King, but KNOW the King. How do we know that we know the King? Two tell tale signs will let you know if you really know the King and can act as your Spiritual thermometer to take your Spiritual temperature. They are the calendar and check book. We can look at each of these and know if we are or are not connecting and really knowing the God we claim to love and trust in.
The calendar. How do we spend our time? How much of our time is set aside to spend time with God, fellowship with others, and serve God? Sadly, most of us come up short in this area. God gives each and every one of us the same 24 hours to do with what we please. There is no saying "I wish I had as much time as this other person does". The fact is, we make time for the things that are most important in our lives. I believe that if we want to really connect with God and know Him, we must spend time DAILY in His word and His presence. This is not optional. We must also spend time with other believers in fellowship.. not just on Sunday mornings but in bible study groups, home groups, prayer groups, etc. Finally, we must take time to serve. It can be helping someone with a need, teaching someone God's word so they can understand it, or visiting someone in a hospital or prison. (see Matthew 25) If we were to keep a balance sheet of how we spend each day, we would probably be shocked to see how little time we give to God.
The checkbook. There is an old expression that goes "put your money where your mouth is" but I prefer (and so does Jesus) to express it this way "put your money where your heart is". (see Matthew 6:21) If we are to connect and know God we must give back a portion of what He has so richly given us. This can be tithing at your local church, giving to missions, etc. If we decide to keep all that God has given us to ourselves and not give (the tithe for example), we are saying that we do not trust God to take care of us using the remaining 90%. This makes no sense if you think about it. We are telling God, "God, I trust you to raise me from the dead, but I don't trust you to pay the light bill so I need to hoard all I have just in case".
OK, so how does one become a "warrior" for God instead of a "worrier" for self? The key is not in the word warrior or worrier but in the words that follow... God and self. If we truly seek the Kingdom, we put the perfect "God" on the throne of our lives, trust Him with everything we have, which frees us up to be a mighty warrior to serve Him and provides joy unspeakable in our lives. If we put "self" on the throne, then we are trusting in our imperfect selves which can only lead to worry, mental breakdown, misery and, at best, lack of joy.
Will you be a warrior or a worrier? The choice is yours.
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