Discipleship

Nov

2023

God’s Voice and Your Heart

I was recently helping a refugee student with high school algebra and found quickly that his problems with algebra were not with algebra. He did not know basic math. He could not add or subtract fractions or negative numbers. He did not know what decimals represented. He struggled with the basic multiplication table and did not know how to do division. But somehow, after he came to America, the school placed him in Algebra, and he had homework asking him to graph parabolic functions. I couldn’t help him much with the homework because he couldn’t graph even a single point if I gave him the coordinates. He didn’t know what a graph was. How he got in Algebra is beyond me. He had no business being there. He learned nothing in that class because the class didn’t teach the skills he needed to learn. The class assumed that everyone already knew those skills. Math is this way. You must master lower skills before you can move on.

Life is this way too. You must learn your job before you are able to lead in it. You must see your sin before you apologize. You need to get married before you get pregnant. When you get life backwards, it’s like my student trying to do algebra when he can’t add or subtract. It’s a mess.

When it comes to hearing the voice of God, this same principle holds. God has established certain prerequisites to hearing from Him, and these, in general, pertain to your heart and to obedience. God speaks more clearly to those with pure, obedient hearts.

Why should God speak to you when you won’t heed Him? If we ask for God’s direction but are unwilling to go wherever He may lead, we have a more foundational problem than direction. Before God gives us the direction we want, we need the heart He wants.

When God speaks to you, He entrusts you with His message. If you are merely going to trample His message, why should He give it to you? God entrusts His messages to those whom He most trusts, and those whom He most trusts are those who have His heart. If you want to hear more from God, pursue His heart in you.

Pursue humility. Confess sin. Die to your desires. Let go of earthly distractions. Glorify Jesus in your heart and mind, with your words and deeds. Give thanks. Praise Him for His steadfast love and faithfulness. Consider Him holy and righteous. Enjoy His goodness and beauty. If you want to hear from God, pursue these practices from the heart. God will then begin conforming you into a man or woman more able to hear from Him. The closer your heart draws near to His, the better you will hear His voice.

The state of your heart is more important than getting guidance for your career or family. God will gladly withhold His voice if doing so forces you to trust Him. Or He may speak, but you miss His voice because your heart is not attuned to His Spirit. Either way, your heart is foundational. Everything God does or does not do for you has your heart as its primary aim. His voice and His silence are aimed at your heart. If you wish to discern His voice, you must trust Him from the heart.

Oct

2023

The Voice of God and the Word of God

Lord, teach me your Word, that I may know your heart.

If someone hands me the phone, and I hear my wife’s voice on the other end, no one has to tell me who I am talking to. I don’t see her, but I know her voice.

God wants His voice to be something we know. So how do you learn His voice?

I learned my wife’s voice by listening to her and spending much time with her. We learn God’s voice by listening to Him and spending much time with Him. Of course, God’s voice is not auditory, so we must listen in a different way, but the principle remains the same. If you spend little time with God and if you never try to listen, you will never learn His voice. The most common reason people do not hear the voice of God is that they don’t even try.

Sometimes they believe God is nebulous – so why bother? Sometimes they don’t like what God says, so they shut Him out. But most people don’t think much of anything about God. They are so busy going to work and school, cooking dinner, shopping for groceries, watching movies, surfing the internet, thinking about a guy or girl, fixing their car, taking their kids to the doctor, and more – that they have no time to think on God. It’s not that they think God is nebulous, confusing, or distasteful. It’s that they don’t think on God at all. God is irrelevant to their world, so the idea that He can speak to them is likewise irrelevant. When people laugh at the idea that you can hear from God, it is usually these people who are doing the laughing.

But those who have faith will take steps to know God. They will want to hear His voice, and the first place in which you will hear the voice of God is in the Scriptures. The Bible is the very Word of God. It reveals how God thinks. It contains His voice. When you immerse yourself in Scripture, you immerse yourself in the voice of God. You soak your mind in God’s thoughts. When you ignore Scripture, you ignore the voice and mind of God.

Saturate your mind with Scripture, and you prepare yourself to hear from God. Scripture provides the intellectual, spiritual, and moral operating system through which God speaks. It reveals the culture of heaven. It is the worldview God has breathed out.

Soaking your heart and mind in Scripture helps you know God’s voice because God’s voice will never contradict God’s Word. Scripture provides a pattern that God’s spoken voice will fit, a standard that it will conform to. It provides the background for hearing from the Holy Spirit.

Suppose a friend tells you that your mother spoke glowingly about a politician that you know she cannot stand. You know that your friend is mistaken, not because you heard the specific conversation yourself, but because you know your mother. Perhaps the friend missed some sarcasm, but his claim is false, and you know it. You have background knowledge about your mom based on repeated experience with how she thinks and talks. This background helps you recognize her message.

It also helps you interpret her message when she speaks. Let’s say you know that your mom can get animated when she explains herself. When that happens, you know she is not angry because you know that’s just the way she is. You know her heart. But someone who doesn’t know her so well may ask why she is so upset.

Scripture helps you in these ways. It shows you the heart and mind of God, and as you get to know how God thinks and feels, you begin to recognize the sorts of messages God would or would not say.

Knowing Scripture is essential for discerning God’s voice. If you want to know the voice of God, get to know the Bible.

Jul

2023

On Denying Self

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and come follow me. (Luke 9:23)

Christian maturity comes through Christ. When Jesus gets inside you, He changes you to be more like Him. He went to the Cross. When He gets inside you, He will take you to the Cross too.

He will call you to deny yourself. He will ask you to die. And you won’t like it. And because you won’t like it, you will fight it. Blessed is the one who yields his life when it is hard.

But when you yield, you must yield to the true voice of Christ. Where Christ calls you to deny yourself, do it. But do not think you will earn favor with God by denying what God has not called you to deny.

Asceticism for its own sake or to show how devout you are is harmful. It breeds pride. It is not the mark of Christian maturity. But self-denial in those areas on which God has placed His finger is essential. Self-denial for the wrong reasons is a religious show. It is legalism. But self-denial from the heart when Jesus speaks is obedience. It is part of your growth.

Therefore, if Jesus says, “Give sacrificially,” you have to be willing to give, even if it means going without that vacation you wanted.

If Jesus says, “Apologize to your subordinate at work,” you have to apologize, even if it means swallowing your pride.

If Jesus says, “Get up and pray,” you have to get up and pray, even if it means going without sleep.

If Jesus says, “Give me Thursday nights and go serve the needy,” you have to give Him Thursday nights, even if it means saying no to time with your friends.

If Jesus says, “Give me your music,” give Him your music. If He says, “Stop spending time at the theater,” stop going to the movies. If He says, “Football has become your idol,” stop watching football.

Denying yourself can look any of these ways. When Jesus speaks in this way concerning some aspect of your life, your obedience is not legalism, even if your friends accuse you of such. Your obedience is obedience. In fact, in these cases, if you ignored Jesus’ call by reasoning that you had freedom to take a vacation or sleep or see your friends Thursday night or watch football, you would be technically correct. You would also be disobedient.

Jun

2023

Suffering and Growing

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Heb 5:8)

Father, I don’t want suffering. But I do want more of You. And if suffering helps me know You better, bring what is necessary to bring me near to You.

Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered. When we look at that Scripture, we often focus on the question of how the eternal Son of God needed to learn anything, but that question doesn’t trouble me. The eternal Son of God became a man; and as a man, He had to learn all sorts of things. He learned how to walk and talk. He learned how to count. He learned how to read. He learned carpentry and doctrine. He learned history and Jewish culture. He learned Mary’s fears and Joseph’s desires. He learned weakness and humility. To say that He learned obedience is no surprise.

To me, however, the more important part of that Scripture is how Jesus learned. He learned obedience through what He suffered.

Pain teaches us obedience. Comfort does not. The man who obeys when he wants to doesn’t learn anything about obedience because he is doing what he wants. But the man who says, “Father, if it be possible, take this cup from me,” and who then walks to the Cross – that man has learned obedience.

Suffering changes you. It makes some people bitter and others humble. It shows you your weakness up close. It shows that you are not in charge of your life. When you see these truths, you can mature, for the greatest hindrance to spiritual maturity is self. Suffering has the ability to open the eyes of your heart to see that your “self” is not as strong as you think. Suffering can help you look beyond yourself, and it is precisely then that God can draw nearer. Suffering helps faith understand God in a deeper way.

And suffering often exposes a lack of faith. It is much easier to hide the real you when life is comfortable. But when pain shows up, the real you comes out.

Thus, suffering reveals who you are and changes you simultaneously.

This is why God insists that we experience pain and suffering. He doesn’t want us to hide, and He wants to help us die to ourselves.

Jun

2023

The Kingdom and Suffering

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (II Tim 3:12)

Jesus, thank you that you have gone through suffering we will never understand and promise to be with us always in the midst of ours. Hallelujah!

Leanne and I had dinner with another couple a few days ago, and we got to talking about the church in America. The wife of the other couple made the observation that the American church is full of Christians who have stagnated in their spiritual growth. They go to church. They read their Bible. They may serve in some capacity or even give. But they will go only so far.

Her observation is spot on, and there is a reason why. Christianity is about more than just doing nice practices and being respectable. Jesus told his followers to take up their cross. And that’s hard. The cross involves self-denial and suffering, and people aren’t willing to go that far. But in the kingdom of God, no other way exists except the way of the Cross. The disciples give us many examples of it.

The Philippians threw Paul and Silas in prison. Herod slew James. Rome exiled John and crucified Peter. The Jews stoned Stephen. Read the New Testament and you quickly encounter persecution and opposition to the gospel everywhere you turn. In the New Testament, God’s people suffer.

Paul tells us that suffering for Jesus has been granted us (Ph 1:29) and that we should rejoice in our sufferings (Rm 5:3ff). Peter says that we are not to be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes, as though something strange were happening (I Pet 4:12). The writer to the Hebrews describes the people of faith being mocked, flogged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword and more (Heb 11:36-8). John relates the trials of the people of God as a central component of his visions in The Revelation. Jesus says that this world will hate you on account of Him (Jn 15:18-19) and that you are blessed when the world insults, persecutes, and slanders you because of Him (Mt 5:10-12).

It is fair to say that the New Testament considers the suffering of God’s people to be normal. We are to expect hardship for Jesus’ sake, and when it comes we are to embrace it and rejoice in it.

If you listen to many Christians talk, however, this concept is as foreign as Andromeda. They think that if God blesses us, we won’t have to deal with pain or hardship. They consider the fiery trial to be evidence of God’s absence.

How did we get this way? I mean, you have to twist Scripture pretty badly to think that God somehow owes you a nice, comfortable existence. The truth that God’s people suffer kicks you in the teeth. And many still miss it.

We miss it because we don’t like it. We miss it because this truth comes in a package with lots of other truths. We open the package, and we see that God loves us. We ooh and ahh over that truth because we like it. We see that God has come and died for sin, that we are forgiven, that we are His adopted children, and that we inherit all the spiritual blessings of Christ, and we set these truths on the mantel above the fireplace for all to see. They are wondrous and beautiful and precious. But when we pull out of the box that bit about suffering, we set that truth behind the water heater in the garage where we quickly forget it. It doesn’t seem so lovely as those mantelpiece truths.

The truth about suffering and trials, however, comes in a Biblical package for a reason. The truths of God were never meant to be separated. Suffering belongs on the mantelpiece right with the love of God. When you see them together, you see the depths of the love of God and the blessings of Christ even more. When you see them together, you see that the love of God and the mercies of Christ are not merely the shallow comforts of earth but are deeper than the deepest pain you will ever face. The sufferings of the saints make those mantelpiece truths shine more gloriously. You don’t understand the love of God until you have suffered.

And suffering likewise needs those other truths. When you put them together, you show the hope that you have in the face of pain, but when you relegate suffering to the garage, you separate it from the very truths that will help you through it when it comes.

And here’s the thing.

Suffering will come. That’s a promise. From God Himself.

But He also promises to be with you in the midst of the fiery furnace. He says He loves you and forgives you and has died for you and has made your soul insanely rich in Christ. And He says all these promises are true even while you suffer. Your sufferings do not negate those other truths. They all go together.

Apr

2023

Practices for Handling Money IV: Investing

Before you read this blog, please read the previous blogs on principles and practices for handling money. From a spiritual standpoint, those principles and practices need to be in place before you think about investing money.

Now . . . investing.

If you are hoping for me to talk about great funds to park your money in or nice tricks to maximize a return on an investment, I’m going to disappoint you. I am not an investment expert, and I don’t want to be one. I know the Bible, not the stock market. I am here to bring a Biblical focus to investing and not to provide the latest strategies on multiplying money.

With that out of the way, allow me to begin with a story about a man I know who, many years ago, spoke to me about investing. He told me that everyone should invest at least x dollars or y per cent of his income in certain types of funds that this man deemed safe. He then said that beyond these safe investments, everyone should invest money in other areas that could yield a higher rate of return.

He had no idea that he was talking to a man who had no disposable income to invest at all, and I distinctly remember thinking that he and I lived in different worlds. This man with his “wonderful” investment advice had no clue about the realities of most people.

Don’t make the mistake that man made. An enormously large swath of the world’s population can’t invest. You can’t invest what you don’t have. So if you are fortunate enough to have the means to invest, be grateful to God for what He gave you and be aware that many people in this world, and perhaps many people in your world, do not have your means. Do not assume that everyone can invest.

Now if you do have money beyond basic giving, beyond the basic needs of your family, and beyond saving for some future need, what should you do with it?

The answer to that question is not the same for everyone. God will ask some to give most or all of that extra money away. He may allow others to spend a portion on something special. He may tell others to invest a part for the future. He may combine any or all of the above in different ratios for different people so that there are a million different answers for a million different people.

And yet there is really one answer to the question of what you should do with extra income. You should submit it to God, seek Him, and allow Him to direct your steps concerning what to do. Then you are in position to hear when He gives His one-in-a-million advice.

The Bible does not directly talk much about investing, either positively or negatively. Investing, in and of itself, is not evil or sinful. I can think of no Biblical condemnation for investing itself. But the righteous woman considers a field and buys it (Pr 31:16). And in the parable of the talents, Jesus praised the first two servants for investing and condemned the wicked servant for not investing. I understand that this parable is about more than money, but it at least endorses the concept of investing, even if it is a parable.

This Biblical vagueness on investing gives us freedom to invest or not as God may lead.

So if you seek God, and He seems to be leading you to invest some money, what now? I am not going to tell you where specifically to invest, but here are some principles to think through to help you keep your investments in perspective.

1. Investing is not the most important thing for you to do with your money. Few verses in the Bible talk about investing, but scads of verses warn against greed and push you to let go of money and give. A heart free from money is more important than a good portfolio, and generous giving is better than smart investing. If investing begins to control you, if it grabs undue attention from your heart, if it keeps you from giving generously and sacrificially, you may need to stop investing and take care of the weightier matters of your own heart.

My wife says that when she was single, she knew guys who were constantly checking their investments. They might meet for dinner, and the guy would check the stock market in the middle of dinner or while cleaning the dishes. This practice told my wife something about the priorities of these men. There may have been nothing wrong with their investing money, but there was something wrong with their undue focus on investing money. If God calls you to invest some of His money, let your heart be free from those investments.

2. Do not support unrighteousness when you invest. As a Christian, you hold the Bible and Jesus to be holy. Why would you then financially invest in businesses that flaunt what is holy? If a business owns a subsidiary that makes pornography, don’t support it. If it consistently makes movies that portray Christians as stupid, immoral, or hypocritical, or movies with messages that continually promote sin, don’t invest in it. If a business publicly promotes homosexuality or advertises in a way that is sexually explicit, or takes an openly hostile position against Christians or a Biblical view, invest somewhere else. Ask yourself if you can in good conscience support the product, message, and practices of a company, and if you can’t, don’t give it your money.

Sometimes you may have no control over your investments. Your employer provides a retirement fund that it or another entity manages, and you may have no choice in where it invests. Fine. I would not lose sleep over that. If you can affect where your money goes, avail yourself of the opportunity, but don’t freely choose to invest in unrighteousness just so you can make a buck. In the West, the culture is certainly getting more overtly hostile to faith in Christ, but you can still find investments that are wholesome and companies that produce products, promote messages, and engage in practices that are Biblically legitimate. There are even investment companies that specialize in investing with a Christian conscience (Thrivent, Eventide).

This consideration is important because when you invest in a business or mutual fund, you are financially supporting and helping what those businesses do, and if their ideas or products go against the kingdom of God, you are using your money to fight against God. When you decide where to invest, look at more than the rate of return. Consider the actual products themselves.

3. Invest more than money. We have been talking about money here because that is the focus of this series. But money is only one resource. In the end, invest your life in the kingdom of God. Your money will follow.

Apr

2023

Practices for Handling Money III: Saving

When Joseph counseled Pharaoh on how to handle the seven years of famine, he told Pharaoh to save during the seven years of plenty. The savings would then carry the nation through the famine. This is a central purpose of saving.

Almost everyone will experience times of low income or unusual bills that their income cannot handle. Therefore, if you are able to save, it is generally wise to set aside a reasonable amount of money for those times. I have intentionally nuanced that statement, so let’s discuss it to elaborate on the nuance.

If you are able to save . . . Some things take priority over saving. It is more important that you and your family have a modest place to live, basic food, simple clothes, and a means to get to and from work than it is for you to save. In addition, you should be giving something from your income even if that income is meager. If you save but never give, that’s a problem. Saving requires an income above your basic needs, and not everyone has that. Thus, some people can’t save. But if you are able to save . . .

it is generally wise . . . Saving is not a law that must be universally followed. Jesus told the rich, young ruler to give away all he had. That is the opposite of saving, and we need to hold money loosely enough that God can have it without prying it from us. We need room in our thinking on money to let God be God. He may want you to set aside some money for the future because He knows what is coming. Or He may ask you to give it all away and trust Him for the future. So saving is not a law.

But it is a principle that is usually wise. Saving allows you to buy more expensive items – a used car, for example – without having to borrow money. Saving helps prevent you from going into debt when you lose your job or get sick and can’t work. If you save nothing, you can’t pay your rent or buy groceries when those times come. Saving helps teach you to deny yourself now in order to have something for the future, for whatever you save, you cannot now spend. The practice of saving, thus, affects your spending habits, usually in a good way. So if you are able to save, it is generally wise . . .

to set aside a reasonable amount of money. Saving must never become hoarding. The man who built bigger barns for himself was a fool. Hoarding destroys your soul. It is an abuse of saving. In hoarding, saving becomes your god. People hoard to feel secure, which means that they do not feel secure in God. That is a big problem.

God must have lordship over your money. If He has you save, then let Him lead in the amount. Talk to Him about it and follow His lead. That should help against hoarding. As you save, continue to give sacrificially. That should also help against hoarding.

Responsible saving has limits to it, and those limits are driven by its purpose. The purpose of saving is not to make you feel secure. The purpose of saving is to provide for the basic needs of you and your family during emergencies and to purchase more expensive items that you know God wants you to pursue – college tuition, perhaps, or a car.

Sometimes, however, good purposes for saving can serve as excuses for hoarding. Maybe God wants you to save $20,000 for college, but you feel you need $100,000. The problem is not in saving for college. The problem is in what you feel you need. The problem is a heart problem. Therefore, let God have lordship over your money, and He will direct your saving. You can trust Him in that.

Jan

2023

Principles for Handling Money

Money is earthly. Money is spiritual. Money is an earthly substance with enormously spiritual implications. Money is God to many people. They bow to it. They live for it. Their joy is in it. Because money can wield such spiritual influence, Christian and secular people think on money in vastly different ways.

Secular thinking focuses on earth. Consequently, secular advice on handling money tends to focus on how to maximize money or utilize money solely for the here and now. Secular people do not think about how money impacts their soul or their eternity. They focus on good principles for investing now or saving now or how to get the most product for their buck.

Christian thought, however, has an eternal and spiritual focus. Christians see all of the temporal and practical matters of the here and now and may even agree with much secular advice on investing and saving and what not. But Christians see more than this, and they do not believe that these temporal, practical matters are the main thing. In fact, to the Christian, secular advice may be woefully impractical because it ignores the main thing.

In secular thinking, you maximize earthly gain. But in Christianity, sometimes you sacrifice earthly gain for the sake of your soul. Thus, as I give Christian principles for how to handle money, sometimes I will be at loggerheads with what the secular world will tell you. On other points dealing with practical earthly matters, we may agree to an extent, but as long as I take my cues from above and they take theirs from the here and now, we can never fully agree. The Christian and secular person will never fully see eye to eye on money.

With that as an intro, let’s dive into some Christian principles for handling money.

God owns it all

Perhaps the first fact we need to understand about money is that whatever money we have is not ours. It is God’s money, and God has seen fit to let us manage it. This is a fact that our flesh fights against. “No!” we scream. “It’s my money! I worked the job! I got the paycheck! The bank account has my name on it!”

But it isn’t my money. God gave me the job. God gave me the talents and skills I use in that job. God gave me the breath I breathe so I can work that job. And God did the same with my employer. The very money that my employer paid me came from God. Not only does God own the money I have, but God owns the house, the car, the clothes, the jewelry, everything. In fact, God owns me. He may let me use the material possessions in my domain as a father lets his children use the bedroom they sleep in. He may let me manage the money in a bank account with my name on it as an investor lets a financial planner manage his funds, but the child doesn’t own the bedroom nor the manager the money.

What this means for the purpose of handling money is that we need to manage God’s money for God’s purposes and not for ours. Of course, God’s purposes will include providing for the needs of you and your family, but He will also have bigger purposes than that. He wants to see if you can trust Him enough to use His money as He decides.

Be grateful

Gratitude flows naturally from the fact that God owns it all. If God owns everything I have, then everything I have comes from grace. I don’t deserve one cent of the money I have. Whether I am financially rich or poor, I deserve less.

Satan fights against gratitude by convincing us that we own the money, that we worked for it, and that we deserve to do what we please with it. When the heart holds onto money, it is not grateful for it.

Satan also fights against gratitude by getting us to compare ourselves with those who have more and by convincing us that we deserve more. When you think that way, you will not be grateful. But when you see that you deserve nothing and that you own nothing of what God has entrusted you with, you are grateful for what you have.

Gratitude does not involve how much money you have but how you view the money you have. A poor elderly woman can be grateful for her pittance, while a rich young man can feel entitled to more. Or a wealthy man can be grateful for his estate, while a poor woman is bitter that others have more. Gratitude is in your heart, not in your bank account.

Be content with what you have

Contentment also flows naturally from the fact that God owns it all, and contentment is crucial to handling money properly. When you are content in Christ, you are content. And when you are content, you don’t need more money to be content. I’ve written on this already here.

Understand that money is temporary

When you die, the money doesn’t go with you. Money is useful for 80 or 90 years, but in eternity it is useless. Why trade away eternal benefit so you can have something for 90 years? That’s a foolish trade. Live for eternity. When you consider how to handle money, do so with eternity in mind.

Let go of money

If God owns it all, let Him own it. Stop handling money as if it is yours. Money has the power to corrupt your heart and devour your soul, and almost everyone whom money corrupts and devours has no idea what it does to them. It is a cancer quietly eating away their heart while they go to work, raise their kids, and buy their home. If you cannot let go of money, money will not let go of you. It will drive you and control you and enslave you, and you won’t even know it.

Let go of it! You can’t live for God and for money. Let go of it! If you gain the whole world but lose your soul, you are a fool. Let go of it! It’s not yours. Let go of it! You can’t take it with you to eternity. Let go of it!

The heart must be free from money. You cannot serve two masters. If Christ is your Lord, money will not be. If money is your Lord, Christ will not be. The most effective way to let go of money is to cling with all your heart to Christ, to love Him, pursue Him, adore Him, and serve Him. This is not just a show. Many who claim the name of Christ don’t love or serve Him. Jesus must be your Lord from the heart. It must be real. Do that, and you will begin the fight of letting go of money.

Up to this point, every principle I have mentioned has focused on heart attitudes. The heart is central. Many people who talk about money talk only about outward behaviors – saving, spending, debt, investment, emergency funds, IRAs. But the stance of the heart toward money is the foundation for outwardly handling money in a godly manner. If the heart is wrong, the behaviors will be misplaced at best.

Nov

2022

God Provides

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1)

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Ph 4:19)

Praise you, Father, for you give freely and abundantly all we need for every good work in Christ Jesus.

God provides.

We moved to Austin in October 2001. At the time, we had no job and three small children, one of whom was in the womb, so we knew we had some hefty medical bills in front of us. We came because God called us to come.

It was a difficult time financially. Mike worked various temp jobs, a bit as a substitute teacher, and had a spattering of writing gigs. These jobs helped slow down the financial bleeding, but none of them could support a family. We had some savings, but we watched it plummet that first year.

Rebekah was born in that first year, and when she was born, we were looking at three car seats in the back seat of a Mercury Topaz. We bought a larger used car for about $1500. It was all we could afford. A couple months later, the engine blew, and we were back where we started, except $1500 poorer. That was early summer.

In September 2002, everything changed. On Labor Day weekend, someone gave us a van. They didn’t know our financial situation or even our need for a larger car. They just felt that God was telling them to give us a van.

That same month, Harcourt asked Mike to come to San Antonio to receive training on an upcoming project they wanted him to write for. The project turned out to be an enormous one, and Mike suddenly was writing constantly through the end of the year. Pay for the writing always came a month or two after the submission, so around mid-October, we began receiving paychecks, and income for December was about $9000. We tithed, paid our living expenses, and put the rest into our savings.

In January 2003, Leanne looked at our savings balance and compared it to the balance from January 2002 and found that the number was about the same. We went through all that financial uncertainty for a year only to have God replenish our finances in two months.

God provides. That is a basic truth that every Christian must hold onto. We learned it in 2002. I don’t mean that we never struggle with God’s provision today but rather that 2002 was a watershed year for us concerning trusting God to provide.

God provides. The psalmist says he has never seen God’s children lacking bread. Jesus says your heavenly Father knows you need food and clothing, and He will take care of you. After all, He feeds the birds and clothes the lilies. Aren’t you more important than they?

God provides. Many of our problems with money flow from our thinking that we provide for ourselves. We get laid off and don’t see how we can make ends meet because we believe we are our own providers, and we no longer have the means to provide.

But God is our provider, and He has the means even when we don’t. Thus, when we get laid off, our ultimate source of income is still intact. I know it can be hard to see this when the checking account has a two-dollar balance (I’m serious. I know how hard this is), but if God is our Father, we have what we need.

God provides. Jesus had no place to lay His head and had a wardrobe that consisted of one tunic, yet His Father provided. God does not promise us great wealth. He promises that we will have what we need, and the most important things we need are not material. For example, would you rather have peace and joy in the midst of poverty and hunger, or no peace and joy with great riches? Believers who know hunger – for example in North Korea – would tell you that God provides their needs. They don’t eat as we eat, but they rejoice nonetheless. When I say God provides, I am not saying you will be rich. I am not saying you will be free from financial difficulties or other hardships. I am saying simply that you will have enough material goods to rejoice in Christ and do what God calls you to do.

God provides. This truth comes down to trust. You have a surgery and are looking at astronomical medical bills. Can you trust God with them? You believe God wants you to attend college but see no way to pay for it. Can you trust Him to provide? You lost your job. You got divorced. You were in a car wreck and totaled your car. Can you trust God in these situations?

If you are from a place where the government or culture is hostile to Jesus, your financial problems may have a different source. The police have come and beat you so that you are unable to work. Your husband was put in prison for the sake of Christ. The family that supported you has now disowned you. Can you trust Him to provide? He will.

Provision is a trust issue, and trust is why God allows us to go through hardship. When life is smooth and nice, who needs to trust? But when you suddenly can’t pay the bills, and you see no earthly solution to your problems, it is then that we have opportunity to build trust and faith in our Provider. We don’t see how, but we see Who. Because we know that . . .

God provides.

May

2022

Contentment

“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” (Ph 4:11)

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (I Tim 6:6)

Father, let my heart rest in you, my eyes feast on Christ, my soul enjoy your eternal pleasures.

If we are going to talk about money, we have to talk about contentment. The central reason money brings the heart such great problems is that the heart is not content. People think money is a source of contentment, and many people who would tell you it is not a source of contentment still live as if it is, which means that even they think it to be a source of contentment despite what they say.

Contentment is the vaccine against greed, the antidote to the poison of materialism. People pursue money in order to be content, but God created us to find contentment in Him. Money is, thus, a rival god to the Lord Almighty. If you are content in Christ, you feel no need for reams of money. It can’t give you anything you don’t already have. In fact, if you pursue it, it can steal what you do have. Many people trade away contentment in Christ so they can have money, and the irony of it is that they do so in the pursuit of contentment.

It is crucial for us to see how interrelated contentment and money are. When Paul says he has learned to be content in all things (Ph 4:11), the context deals with his material situation:

“I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” (Ph 4:12)

When Paul tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain (I Tim 6:6), he begins a conversation on the desire for riches:

“. . . for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (I Tim 6:7-10)

Scripture ties contentment to the desire for money. You can be content or you can desire to be rich, but you cannot be both. You can be content or you can love money, but you cannot be both. You have to choose. Will you be content? Or will you pursue riches?

If you choose contentment, you will pursue Jesus. You will love Him with all your heart. You will honor Him, serve Him, rest in Him, and enjoy Him. And when you enjoy Jesus, money fades into the distance. But if you pursue riches, you will know many senseless and harmful desires that plunge your soul into ruin. You will pierce yourself with pangs and may even wander away from the faith. You may gain great riches and know an outward and transitory happiness, but it will prove to have no foundation and will crumble at the slightest threat of loss. True contentment is deep-seated and can endure trouble and lack. Ask Paul. Money will never give you that.

If I had only one thing to say about how to relate to money, it would be this: Be content in Christ. If you will do that, so much else concerning money will fall into place.

Discipleship

God’s Voice and Your Heart

The Voice of God and the Word of God

On Denying Self

Suffering and Growing

The Kingdom and Suffering

Practices for Handling Money IV: Investing

Practices for Handling Money III: Saving

Principles for Handling Money

God Provides

Contentment

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