Eyes On The Prize

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless..” – Ecclesiastes 5:10

Life is complicated in 2014. So much so that the thought of simplifying your life may seem completely out of reach for you today. Life is busy, cluttered and complicated. There is family drama and debt, busyness and stress, and real pressure from everything from the job to the commute to the job. And then there are all the distractions that must be dealt with very day. “Simplify this life? Not gonna happen.”

It is easy for money to become a distraction. Just the making and management of money alone takes effort and focus. And as you work harder to make more money, you start to feel like money is becoming a subtle at first, then not so subtle master of your life. It is understandable. We think a lot about money in these hard economic times. However, if making money becomes the consuming focus, then our devotion to the dollar competes with our devotion to God. If a life is consumed by money, then very little is left over for the priorities that God has set for Christians.

There is a solution to money’s distraction. Paul dealt with this as he wrote: “But I am frightened, fearing that in some way you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to our Lord, just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden.” (2 Corinthians 11:3, TLB).

As new Christians, we experience that euphoria of our first love and will not permit anything between us and our Lord. But time passes, our intensity and zeal cools, and we will be tempted to push Jesus to the side of our lives and pour our best time, energy, and even money into some distraction. We do not abandon the Lord; we simply don’t give Him the priority He once had in our lives.

Money’s distraction, or any distraction, is derailed by a love relationship with Jesus. When you love Him wholeheartedly, there is no room for money to distract.

“I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.” – 1 Corinthians 7:35 (NLT)

Questions:

1. Why do you suppose that Jesus talks about money so often in parables? Money is an attraction that can easily become a dangerous distraction. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us our hearts are going to follow our treasure. In verse 24 He says, “You cannot serve two masters: God and money. For you will hate one and love the other, or else the other way around.

2. Reflect for a few moments on whether money is a distraction for you? Pray for wisdom in those areas where money has become a distraction for you?

3. Take a few moments and recount for all God has given you. Thank Him for all the material blessings in your life such as a home, job, family and friends. But, also take a few minutes to thank Him in prayer for his mercy, grace, faithfulness, etc. in our lives.

Money and Dependency On God

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” – Colossians 3:2

C.S. Lewis writes: “One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give, and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.”

I remember receiving my first paycheck, and ripping open the envelope to see how much I took home after taxes. It was minimum wage, but it didn’t matter. I was proud. Adding any amount of money to my bank account or my pocket was an exhilarating feeling. With that cash flow came some perceived independence. I was on my way to being an upwardly mobile soon-to-be corporate executive that enjoyed the lifestyle of the rich and famous  Well, one can dream can’t they.

And then life happens. And making your way to easy street is not as easy as you thought in your youth. So you are caught somewhere in between, not poor but far from rich, and certainly not famous outside of family and friends. But rich is where we want to get to, because we’ve seen enough rich people treated with respect and admiration to want a piece of that for ourselves.

Yes, we have God, but we want more. We figure we need to work a little harder and a little smarter. We want the American dream that so many before us have enjoyed. But here is the thing. As the paychecks get larger and our portfolio expands, so does our share of the credit. Our dependence on God gets lost in the mix. We forget Deuteronomy 8:18 which says, “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. “

The simple solution to being more dependent on God is to stop worrying about making more money and trust God to provide all your needs. I don’t say that lightly. I consider myself a pretty big God truster, yet I learn daily that I need to trust him more. Fortunately, God leaves the training wheels on until we are ready. That doesn’t mean we should quit our jobs and wait for mamma from heaven. We just need to make sure we don’t put those things before God or that they hamper our dependence on God.

Questions:
1.  Take a few minutes and list what you worry about most? What keeps you awake at night? Read Luke 12:24-34 and decide if what you most worry about is covered in this passage of scripture?

2. We all have a desire to be self-sufficient—to be independent. However, our daily needs are meant to remind us of the need for daily dependence on God’s provision. Jesus taught us to pray, Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11)  What does daily bread mean in your life?

3.  What first steps can we make to be more totally dependent on God?

4. Take a few moments and rate your ability to be patient for God to provide our needs. Romans 5: 3 (TLB) says, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to be patient.” And James 1:3-4 (TLB) says, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete. Pray for the patience to wait for God to provide for your needs in His timetable and according to His will.  

 

 

We Are Blessed

It is hard to argue that Americans are rich? But maybe you don’t agree. Maybe you look around and from your vantage point you don’t have that much because you see people that have even more. That’s because being rich is a moving target.

Many people equate being rich with having a surplus of money and a whole lot of stuff. That image is perpetuated by the media which inundates us with advertising for all the newest models and the latest styles. It naturally seems, after a while, our stuff, seems kind of average, outdated, or not-good-enough.

Let you remind you of a point I made in the kickoff message of the Be Rich teaching series on Sunday. There is nothing wrong with money or stuff. In fact, I highly recommend saving money because it is a commodity that is pretty difficult to live without. And our earthly possessions aren’t inherently sinful, but they are temporary.

Most of us know of the passage in Philippians 3:7-8, where Paul writes, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” In the Christian’s life, “considering everything as loss” is a process of giving up the temporary joy that I found in our “stuff.”

The joy that I find in my possessions is in knowing that anything that I do have is simply a physical expression of God’s love for me. I want to handle what God has given me the right way. I want to thankful, but I do not want to be attached to it. The right way as found in 1 Timothy 6: 17-19 is to be generous.

When Jesus talks about his followers, he talks about people who are generous, people who clothe the naked, take food to the hungry, take water to the thirsty, people who visit the prisoner, people who invite the stranger in, and people who give their time, people who give their energy, people who give their money. That is what it means to be generous.

Questions:
1. How do you define “rich”? How much money does someone have to make in order to be considered wealthy?
2. What can you do to be more generous?
3. You have been blessed. Who are you going to bless?

We Are Rich

One of the more popular bumper stickers you see on cars everywhere reads, “God Bless America.” My immediate reaction to seeing that bumper sticker is to say, God has blessed America. We are being pretty naive when we start to think that our world is “the” world. We are fortunate to live in the United States.

The Worldwatch Institute says that the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, uses about a quarter of the world’s resources. America has more private cars than licensed drivers. Over 92 percent of the people in the world do not have a car, and it doesn’t matter what make or year of car you drive, most of the world sees a car and they think rich.

We have access to clean drinking water. More than one billion people lack reasonable access to safe drinking water. We go the cupboard, pull out a glass, get some ice from the side of the fridge and pour a clean glass of water to drink. Hundreds of millions of people in the world that watch us do that daily task, that we take for granted, must think to themselves –  wow, it must be nice to be rich.

We probably ate more than we should have today. There are countless numbers of people around the globe who won’t eat today. A lot of them are children. People die from hunger every couple of seconds.

We are rich. God has blessed America.

Questions:
1. Do you feel blessed?
2. Why or why not?

Your Role In The Daily Devotional

Proverbs 1:1-6 says, “for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young—let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.”

You may be wondering why I would spend the time to write these daily devotionals. The reason is simple. Our walk with Christ is every day. I will never be all that God intends me to be unless I have daily, quality time with God.

Yes, I write the devotionals. But, you have a part to play as well if they are to be truly effective. It will take some communication on your part. Communication is a two-way street that involves talking and listening. We speak to God through prayer and God speaks back to us through His holy word. If you want to know what God thinks, what God wants, or what God expects of you, then read His word. Ask yourself what God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you. Then take a few moments to personalize what you have read, by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now. Perhaps it is instruction, encouragement, revelation of a new promise, or corrections for a particular area of your life.

My hope is that you will read these daily devotionals with great expectations that God has something for you somewhere in the text. Take your time and see if you can find and extract extraordinary truths for everyday living as well as in handling difficult circumstances. Pray to God expectantly before you read these devotions. Ask Him to open your eyes to all He wants you to see. Then ask yourself these questions, “What does the text say, what does it mean, and what do I do?”

You’ll be glad you did.

Drawing Near To God

“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you….” – James 4:8

The command we are given in this passage is to draw near to God. The reason and the main goal for writing this devotional is that we get near to God, that we have fellowship with Him and that we not settle for a Christian life at a safe distance from God until we need Him.

Let me share a fundamental truth that I want you to pause and think about for a few minutes: When we draw near to God, we will find Him every time.

This drawing near is not a physical act. It’s not reflecting on your achievements or what you have done right in your life. It’s not something that automatically happens when you attend a Northstar service each week or by being faithful to your Northstar Group. It is an act of the heart. This is the center of the gospel, that God sent His Son to suffer and to die so that through Him we might draw near. It’s all so that we might draw near.

Hebrews 7:25 – “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 11:6 – “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”