Yes to the Freedom of God's Enough

February 6, 2016
Pastor Jeff Lampl

"if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content"
1 Timothy 6:8

How I handle my money is not a money management issue.  It is a character issue.

How I handle my money is not about good credit, it is about credibility.  Credibility with God, credibility with my creditors, credibility with those watching me, and credibility with myself.

We Christians are told by Jesus that He is remaking us.   He is working the angles of our lives to transform us from consumers into givers, because God is a giver and it is in that image that we are created.   As consumers we lose our soul, as givers we find it.

So, why save?   Why get out of debt?  The goal is not to be debt free.   If that were the goal, then any money management system along with some big gifts, a few raises, and a little bit of luck can achieve that.   In fact , if becoming debt free is your only goal you can expect that God will not rush in with a miraculous monetary intervention.    God wants to transform you, not just your financial position.   God wants your heart to turn toward others.   That’s why paying off your debts matters.   That takes long term faithfulness just like God’s is eternally faithful.   That takes caring more about your creditors than about yourself.  That makes you credible even if your credit score suffers.  

What God ultimately wants is to use any means possible to transform you into a person who lives joyfully, gratefully and lovingly with what you have right now, not when you get that one more thing that you have to have to supplement the deficit that you think God leaves you with.

Can you say it, “I have enough”?   Can you say, “Because the Lord is my God I have everything I need”?  Can you say,   “If I never have anything more than I have right now, I will have had more than enough for a full and joyful life on earth”?  

Yet even that does not fully encompass God’s aim, which is so clearly stated when God pushed the reset button with humanity.  We are created to bless others with that with which we have been blessed.

“And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you”   Genesis 12:3

Are you growing in your ability to say, “The Lord has blessed me not only with enough, but also in such a way that I am so grateful to Him that I am able to bless others with the blessings I have been blessed”?

“Lord, your goal for me and for each of us is so lofty, so much grearter than I can imagine, especially when I think about how my money management falls into the category of wanting just a little bit more for myself, instead of wanting to give away as much as I can for You Lord and for Kingdom purposes.  Yet if that’s what this money thing is all about, I’m in.  I look forward to how my bank statement will be a witness to my heart for you.  .  Amen”.