SeedTime

SeedTime Money (Christian Personal Finance)

Joe

Being Satisfied With What We Have

By

how to be satisfied with what you have
How does the phrase “be satisfied with what you have” strike you? I confess that it bothers me. I might be a pretty content guy, but the idea of being satisfied with what I have implies that I shouldn’t be hoping for more . . . a nicer house or a more dependable car or even a fancier cell phone. Could this satisfaction be an indictment against ambition or a mandate for lethargy? I wonder. Yet scripture speaks clearly:
Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. – Hebrews 13:5 NLT
Because I believe that God’s word is always true whether I like it or not, I have been digging to better understand the “whys” and “hows” of this command. Follow along for what I have been learning:

Why We Should Be Satisfied

1. It’s an antidote to loving money.

If you are struggling with this concept, let me ask you another question: “Do you think it is okay to love money?” I am guessing most of you are saying, “Of course not! We should love God and each other . . . not money!” Read Hebrews 13:5 (NLT) again: “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have.” The problem is this: being content with our current circumstances is directly linked to not loving money. Stated differently, if we are not satisfied with what we have, we evidently have a love for money. But, the good news is this: When we develop a satisfied mindset, we are liberated from loving money. It is the antidote.

2. We will learn to trust God.

The full verse reads, “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’” – Hebrews 13:5 NLT What a promise! But do we believe it? Do I believe it? Am I willing to transfer my love of money to a trust in God? Great question, and here we are getting to the crux of the issue: being satisfied with what we have requires a deep trust in God. That is a good thing.

3. We will live without fear.

The very next verse in this passage reads, “So we can say with confidence, ‘The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?’” What do we fear? Losing our jobs? Not getting that next promotion? As long we trust in ourselves or in other people, we are perpetually living on the verge of failure and disappointment. However, if we can learn to trust God, who promises to never fail us or leave us, we have absolutely nothing to fear.

How to Be Satisfied

Remembering that I am writing this to myself as well as to you, here are some bullet point thoughts:
  • Be intentional about living with less instead of wanting more.
  • When you accumulate more, give more.
  • Be thankful for what you already have instead of resenting what you don’t have.
  • Know the difference between needs and wants.
  • Be satisfied with God’s sufficiency for your needs.
  • Distinguish between temporal and eternal. All of our money and possession in this life will pass away. God’s provisions last forever.
You know . . . this idea of being satisfied with what we have is sounding pretty good to me. Doing so will break me free from a love of money, help me develop a deeper trust in God and purge fear from my life. I am going to go for it. How about you? Leave a comment!

Raise Your Children to be Generous: 3 Important Tips

By

Raise Your Children To Be Generous

On a Spring day in 1998, I reluctantly notified our mission chairman that I wouldn’t be able to make the Mexico Mission trip. My reason? I did not have the $500 deposit and didn’t have time to raise the money. However, that same day, my daughter called, “Dad, I know that you really, really want to take this trip, and it just so happens that I have an extra $500. I want you to use it for your deposit.”

Recalling that conversation still makes me misty eyed, not because I was able to take the trip, but because our daughter made such a generous offer. Knowing that Jaime, a struggling cosmetologist, did not have ANY extra money punctuated the bigheartedness of our girl, and being the recipient made me realize that my wife and I had raised a remarkable young woman. Lest I shortchange our other three children, allow me to state that all four of our children, now in their thirties, are generous with their hearts, their time and their money.

I wish I could pinpoint the exact strategy my wife and I used to raise generous children, but I must confess that such a strategy never existed. However, we did a few things right, so I will share three tips, some of which we did pretty well and some of which we could have done better.

1. Walk the walk.

Children learn by watching their parents. Period. Jesus was teaching this principle when he said that students cannot be greater than their teachers (Mat 10:24). Our children learned generosity as they watched my wife taking hot soup to sick neighbors, baking holiday treats to give away at Christmastime and simply giving of herself any time any of us have had needs. Myself? Although I have been doing better in recent years, generosity has never come easy for me. Still, in spite of my self-centered nature, I was acutely aware of the fact that my children were watching how I treated the restaurant server and how I responded to red poppy collections at stop signs. Such awareness, I am sure, prompted my own generosity and (I hope) encouraged our children to do likewise.

2. Involve your children in giving.

Our church, for years, gave homemade Christmas gifts to the inmates at a nearby minimum security prison. Coordinating with a prison minister, we (children included) were allowed to deliver those gifts to the prison and then participate in a Christmas worship service with the inmates. The gifts consisted of homemade Christmas cards and homemade cookies. For weeks before Christmas, our children’s Sunday School classes made hundreds of homemade cards. In the meantime, parents and children made dozens of homemade cookies. Janice devised an assembly line approach for our family: some mixing, some placing on cookie sheets, some timing and removing from oven and some putting the cooled cookies in plastic bags. The highlight of our Christmases during those years was taking our children with us to deliver the gifts and participate in the service.

3. Make giving a requirement.

“Just a minute, Joe. Isn’t ‘required giving’ an oxymoron? After all, if it doesn’t come from the heart, is it really giving?” Good point. But Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” We train our children to study, to work and to treat others as they want to be treated. Should we not also train them to give? Of course! And such training does not mean handing them a quarter as you walk into the church building…that is a lesson of how to be a courier. Because we taught our children to earn their own money (by paying them for certain responsibilities), the offerings they gave to the Lord were true gifts. Did we militantly force them to give every single Sunday? Not at all. In fact, we should have been more diligent about it…something I hope you can do better than we did. Candidly, getting all four of them into the car on Sunday mornings was challenging enough without always remembering their offerings. However, in spite of our inconsistencies, the giving they did as children stayed with them when they became adults.

It is more than money.

I want to close by emphasizing that true giving, while it is a discipline, is much more profound than a simple transfer of goods. When you train your children to be givers, you are molding their hearts; hearts which will develop into generous spirits as they enter adulthood. When our oldest son Josh was a high school senior, he saved his pizza delivery money for months so he could spend it on vacation. But, when we encountered a needy family while en route, he gave it all to them.

Who knows? Maybe your son will do the same. Or maybe your daughter will some day offer to pay your deposit on a short-term mission trip. I hope so.

What other tips do you have for those looking to raise generous children? Tell us a story from your own life, and meet us in the comments!











8 Practical Ways to Love God More Than Money

By

8 ways to love GOD more than moneyI write this article as much to myself as to you: I fully realize how money will persistently and insidiously seek to capture a bigger and bigger portion of my heart and my life.

I also know that drifting through life doesn’t work because I seldom drift closer to God.

Perhaps this is why Jesus declared these two loves to be polar opposites:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Matthew 6:24 NIV

I am convinced that we need to be very intentional about keeping God first and money last. These tips will help.

1. Have a Regular Prayer Time

I am not talking about praying over a meal or even talking to God as you drive to work. These prayers are fine, but loving God means committing your time to Him. Set aside some time every day just for Him. He would love for you to do so.

2. Serve Others

The second greatest commandment (after loving God) is to love others. Do you serve your family? Do you serve your co-workers (even your subordinates)? Do you check on the widow who lives down the street? Do you volunteer to mentor a child of a single parent?

Notice that I haven’t said a word about money so far. Why? Because the best way to not love money is to proactively love God. As Jesus said, we can’t love both.

Now some money tips that will help us love God . . . .

3. Be a Giver

Why do I emphasize giving? Because doing so is the antidote for loving money.

God is the ultimate giver (He gave his only son). The more we develop a giver’s heart, the more we become like God and demonstrate our love for him.

4. Plan to Increase Your Giving for the Rest of Your Life

This isn’t about tithing, nor is it about legalism; it is about systematically ensuring that we never become complacent. Some of you struggle to give anything at all while others are stuck at 10%.

Why not set a goal of giving a greater percentage annually for the rest of your life? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to give 30% or 50% or 70%? After all, this is about loving God; this is radical and this is about not being like everyone else.

5. Plan to Give Spontaneously

Budget a set amount to keep on hand to be able to bless others as needs arise. Jan and I keep a “bless envelope” on hand packed with cash earmarked to give. This is a fun, grass roots way to keep our giving real.

6. Meet with Accountability Partners

Do you know others who are striving to radically love Jesus? Meet with them regularly to encourage each other, share ideas and give testimonies of ways that have worked. Nothing motivates more than hearing from someone else who has actually done what you are considering.

7. Automate Your Finances

Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “lead us not into temptation.” (Matthew 6:13 NIV) Keeping money easily accessible is, for some, a temptation. We keep a small buffer balance in our regular checking account, then have every dollar above that buffer amount transferred monthly to a less accessible account.

8. Set a Maximum Limit for How Much You Keep

Change your thinking from how much you give to how much you will keep. This is not a vow of poverty nor should it be a time for imprudence. But, unless you set a cap, you will drift to higher and higher standards of living without realizing it. Is this not what everyone around you does? Be radical, set that cap, and you will start viewing those pay raises as opportunities to give more. Remember to create a plan that honors God instead of money!

I hope these few thoughts will motivate you to love money less and love God more.

What other ideas do you have? Leave a comment!














How Your Family Can Take Back Christmas!

By

We had allowed Christmas to become our master, and we found ourselves enduring rather than enjoying the season. However, we decided three years ago to take back Christmas and we have loved it ever since.Over the years, Jan and I have seen the joy of Christmas turn to stress as we annually exhausted ourselves with shopping lists, shopping extravagances, and mounds of gifts to be wrapped and delivered.

We had allowed Christmas to become our master, and we found ourselves enduring rather than enjoying the season.

However, we decided three years ago to take back Christmas and we have loved it ever since.

No, we didn’t turn into Scrooges; we simply decided that we (not tradition or expectations from others) would determine how we should celebrate Christmas.

A few simple changes made a huge difference, and you can make them too:

1. Create memories instead of stuff.

Our immediate family (four grown children and their families) opted to forego our Christmas gift exchange in lieu of a family vacation – funded by the money we would have spent on gifts.  Our logic is that the memories from those vacations are infinitely more valuable than whatever stuff one receives at Christmas.

We still get together at Christmas time to share a meal, celebrate the season and enjoy a Christmas play the kids perform for us.  We also have some gifts for the kids to open.

How did it happen?  Obviously, Jan and I cannot unilaterally dictate how other families (even our own children’s families) celebrate Christmas, but this concept was an easy sell, especially after our grandson remarked a few years ago about the overabundance of gifts.

Each family, of course, still has their own Christmas traditions, but everyone was ready to try something different with our big family gathering, so exchanging stuff for memories was the perfect solution.  Hopefully, we can continue to do so for many years to come.

2. Try ‘Secret Santa’ giving.

Jan’s side of the family (including kids) all commit to blessing a needy person or family sometime during the Christmas season.  Then, when we gather on Christmas Day, we share our experiences instead of piles of presents.  These times of sharing have become very meaningful – often tearful — as we touch on the very essence of Christmas.

How did it happen?   This change has happened in stages, starting at a Thanksgiving gathering four years ago when Jan’s niece handed out $10 bills to each family member with the challenge to be a Secret Santa.  Everyone loved the experience, but never considered using it to replace the long time family tradition of everyone buying gifts for everyone else.

The next year, Jan and I handed out the $10 bills along with the thought of replacing the gift exchange with Secret Santa stories . . . a thought that was not well received; obviously this huge gift exchange was very entrenched.  But we persisted in asking the family to cut back on the gift exchange the following year and much of the family began to agree.

This year, along with our Secret Santa stories, we will have a very limited gift exchange, involving Jan’s mom (the family matriarch who will never stop buying for everyone) and the little ones.

3. Start sibling charity gifts.

My six siblings and I take turns picking a charity to support each Christmas.  This year my youngest sister selected Books for a Better World, so we each sent her a donation which she passed along to her charity of choice.  This fun tradition is simple and significant.

How did it happen?  I take zero credit for this tradition.  As my family has grown older and relocated all over the nation, our Christmas gatherings became more and more sporadic.  For years, my siblings and I drew names for a Christmas gift exchange, but, over time, the spirit of the gift exchange began to wane.  However, about seven years ago, one of my sisters came up with the sibling charity idea . . . a concept which all of us have loved ever since.

Changes are difficult, especially when Christmas traditions are deeply rooted, but Jan and I are happy to report that, over time, all of the above ideas have taken root.

We are even happier to report that joy has returned to our Christmases.

With some intentional work, your family can take back Christmas too.

Do you enjoy or endure Christmas?  What changes has your family made to take back Christmas?  What changes would you like to see happen?











15 Timeless Financial Quotes Worth Reading

By

15 timeless financial and money quotes Some people have the ability to squeeze a lot of meaning into a few words…words that anchor themselves in our minds and guide us, often when we are not expecting it. These meaningful snippets, over time, become oft-quoted sayings.

In this post, I will quote – and comment on — some very common and some not so common financial quotes.

Hopefully, they will find an anchor in your mind to help guide you in your financial decisions.

1. “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” John Maxwell.

Many abhor budgets because they have swallowed the straitjacket connotation of confinement and restriction. Maxwell’s saying gives new meaning to a budget: peace of mind (being in control of your money) as opposed to stress (wondering where it went).

2. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Zig Ziglar

We hesitate to set goals because, subconsciously, we are afraid of failure. However, as Zig points out, failure to set goals will guarantee failure.

3. “A stitch in time saves nine.” English astronomer Francis Baily 1797

Procrastination can be our ruination. To ignore financial reality with a fuzzy headed belief that “all will work out” is naïve and dangerous. Whether the stitch is getting out of debt, building an emergency fund, or investing for retirement, Baily’s point is that, whereas only one is required now, many will be required if we allow our lives to become unraveled.

4. “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Thomas Tusser

We should seek wisdom on how to handle money before seeking more money. If a person can’t handle a little, he will not be able to handle much. We have all heard of lotto winners who found themselves with far more money than they were capable of handling, and who also found themselves back to where they started in no time. However, if a person learns to handle what he has, he is building wisdom which will guide him to manage more.  (See Luke 16:10 for more)

5. “We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.” Gloria Steinem

How utterly true. How we spend our money is a great indicator of our value system. Ask yourself, “What would a total stranger learn about me by looking at my checkbook stubs?”

6. “When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart.” John Wesley

This doesn’t mean that Wesley was a spendthrift; to the contrary, he gave away a huge percentage of his income. But we learn here that Wesley recognized how money has a way of creeping into our lives and grabbing a more important role than it should have. We would do well to maintain the humility and good sense that Wesley had.

7. “The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” Author Unknown

This wise saying is a stark reminder of the truth that money can’t purchase true riches.

8. “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” Dave Ramsey

Success with money management requires lifestyle changes. The good news is that when one is ready to sacrifice today, he will eventually reap the benefits of those sacrifices.

9. “The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.” Mad Magazine.

Sometimes it takes an extreme exaggeration to open our eyes to the obvious. This saying exposes our propensity to go into debt for a “great deal” on something we don’t need.

10. “’Your money, or your life.’ We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand of us, but not when God does.” Mignon McLaughlin

I love this one because it expresses a deep truth by sneaking up on you. It is closely akin to the challenge Jesus gave, “you cannot serve both God and money.”

11. “If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.” Author Unknown

If you loan people money, you are risking the relationship. This saying tells us that the relationship with someone who doesn’t pay their debts may not be very valuable in the first place.

12. “Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.” J. Paul Getty

Dave Ramsey quotes Getty when he teaches the value of diversification in his Financial Peace University class. The concept is the same as not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

13. “October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” Mark Twain

Of course, all investments require risk; Mark Twain was stating, in his whimsical manner, that this risk is always there … there is no such thing as a “sure thing”.

14. “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy.

Many misquote this one by saying that money is the root of all evil. Reality is that money is amoral: it can be used for good or for evil. However, one is asking for big problems once he starts loving the money.

15. “You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus Christ

I close with this one because Jesus presses us to a decision. Our alliance cannot be divided; to serve God doesn’t mean 50-50 or even 90-10. It is either 100% or not at all.

I hope you enjoyed these sayings, and I further hope that they will stick with you and guide you.

Readers: Which of these sayings impact your life the most?  What other financial sayings are important to you?










Can Rich People Get to Heaven?

By

Can Rich People Get to Heaven

If I am going to write about rich people getting to heaven, we had better clarify what we mean by “rich”. Because most of us compare ourselves with neighbors or fellow workers or bank presidents or movie stars, we can agree that the “richness” is a relative trait. Right?

In that case, by that standard, we have just defined you as rich. According to Global Rich List, if you have an annual income of more than $850, you are richer than half the people in the world. If you prefer to think of richness in more elitist terms — say the top 10% of income earners – you are rich if you make over $25,000 annually. So…my guess is that you are rich even by the “elitist” definition.

“So,” you may be wondering, “does the bible say that rich people can’t get to heaven?” Well…sort of. Some have made that conclusion based on Jesus’ conversation with a rich young man (Mat 19: 16-26) who, although he was morally upright, was not willing to give his possessions to the poor in order to gain treasures in heaven. As this young man, who evidently had great wealth, walked away with his head down, Jesus told his disciples that a rich man has about as much chance of entering the kingdom of heaven as a camel does of passing through the eye of a needle.

“Well, Joe”, you are thinking. “Doesn’t that settle it? Jesus is the ultimate authority and it is impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. By world standards, I am rich. I am also doomed. Right?”

Not so fast. Let’s examine exactly what took place during this encounter.

The young man had a false concept of entrance to heaven.

He started his conversation with Jesus by asking, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” If our entrance to heaven is based on our good deeds, we are all in serious trouble.

The young man was self-righteous.

When asked about keeping the commandments (at least six of them), he said, “All of these I have kept.” Really?  ALL of them?  Without ever slipping even once?  I don’t think so, and he was deceiving himself if he thought so.

His possessions came between him and God.

Those six commandments were all about how well one treats his fellow man. Because the other four (there are ten altogether) are about one’s relationship with God, Jesus tested that relationship by offering treasures in heaven if the young man would give his possessions to the poor. Of course, we know what happened: he walked away sorrowfully.  Why?  Because his stuff was more important than his relationship with God.

All things are possible with God.

After the man walked away, Jesus’ dumbfounded disciples asked what you and I would have asked, “Then who in the world can be saved?” Jesus answered, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

“Joe, this is all a big riddle to me. Tell me flat out: can a rich man get to heaven?”

OK. The answer is yes. Here is why:

  • Access to heaven is a free gift. (Eph 2: 8,9) It has absolutely nothing to do with being good or having money or keeping commandments.  Just as good deeds will not open heaven’s doors for Mother Teresa or Billy Graham, riches will not close those doors for Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.  Entrance is based on one thing and one thing only: accepting God’s free gift.
  • By seeking right standing with God through his good deeds, the young man was asking the wrong question: Jesus simply pursued this erroneous line of thinking until he reached this young man’s chink in his armor: his possessions. We all have similar “chinks”, whether they be our stuff or our time or our selfishness or temper or…well, you get the idea.

Other questions

Maybe this free gift stuff makes sense, but Jesus DID ask the man to give all of his possessions to the poor. Doesn’t that mean we should do the same?

Not necessarily. We are reading a narrative of a one time only event where Jesus confronts a rich man about what is standing between him and God. We should not read into this narrative a command that Jesus expects all of us everywhere to always give every penny we have to the poor. Think about it: we would then be the poor and the recipients would then be expected to give it back. Very confusing.

But shouldn’t we be willing to give to the poor?

Ahh. Great question. We should be willing to do whatever God leads us to do. If he wants us to be very generous (and he does), we should be very generous.  To reiterate, this generosity has nothing to do with earning a spot in heaven; it is the natural result of being changed on the inside when we become God’s children.

OK.  This is starting to sink in.  Should I, therefore, go ahead and seek my millions?

Maybe.  If you are able to handle those millions in a way that pleases God.  Some have misconstrued Jesus’ words “with God everything is possible” as license to go ahead and accumulate wealth. I would remind them that Jesus also said, “ When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” Luke 12: 48.

A rich man can indeed enter heaven, but a rich man is also responsible for how he handles those riches.

Readers:  How do you define “rich”?  Do you think it is harder for a rich person to get to heaven than a poor person?   Why?

Life Lessons from 6 Famous Failures

By

6 lessons from famous failuresHave you ever met a successful person who did not encounter some failures along the way?

I know I haven’t … it seems that failure is inextricably blended into the pathway toward success.

Fortunately for us, some very famous people have traveled this path.

What can we learn from these “famous failures”?

1. Never give up.  (Winston Churchill)

Churchill failed sixth grade and was defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister of England at the age of 62.  When he met with his Cabinet on May 13, 1940, as England was about to enter the war against Germany, he told them that, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”

I believe it was Churchill’s determination to face his earlier failures head on which gave him the resolve to lead his nation through years of warfare.  He later wrote these now famous words, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, never, never, never give up.”

How about you?  When you are pursuing something noble, honorable and right, do you tend to give up or do you, like Churchill, doggedly stick with it?

2. Learn from your failures.  (Thomas Edison)

Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.”  He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.”  He made thousands of unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb, but when a young reporter asked him how it felt to have failed all those times, Edison’s now famous reply was, “I didn’t fail 5,000 times.  I discovered 5,000 ways that didn’t work.”

How about you?  When things don’t go as you hoped for, do you get paralyzed by self-pity or do you take a step back and ask yourself, “What can I learn from this experience?”

3. Discover your niche.  (Albert Einstein)

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 years old and did not read until he was 7.  One of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.”  Einstein had speech difficulties as a child and was once thought to be mentally handicapped.

He was expelled from school and failed admittance into Zurich Polytechnic School.  However, he buckled down, received some training and was eventually accepted into Zurich Polytechnic.  A few years later, after earning his Ph.D., he received a Nobel prize in Physics and has generally been recognized as the genius of our modern era.

Because of his early failures, Einstein could have given up. Obviously, he wasn’t meant to be a writer or speaker, but he WAS meant to be a physicist of the highest order.  The key?  Discovering his niche.

How about you?  Do you think of yourself as a failure in life because you failed in one area of life?  Maybe those failures are a message you should heed:  try something else, and keep trying until you discover your niche.

4. Trust your gut. (Beethoven)

Although Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly, and his music instructor told him that he was “hopeless as a composer”, he continued to play his own compositions instead of working on his technique.  The rest, of course, is history and even legend: Beethoven wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.

We are thankful today that Beethoven insisted on playing his own compositions, but, if he hadn’t “trusted his gut”, he may have given up his pursuits of composing.  He just KNEW that he was meant to be a composer.

How about you?  Are you doing what you know you should be doing?  Do you continue doing it even if critics and friends tell you to give up?  Do you trust your gut?

5. Use criticism as your motivator. (Sidney Poitier)

After his first audition, the casting director told Sidney Poitier, “Why don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?”  Poitier recalls that he decided at that very moment to devote his life to acting.

How about you?  Does the sting of criticism make you want to quit or do you allow it to motivate you?

6. Allow failures to give you focus.  (JK Rowling)

Before Harry Potter fame, JK Rowling was a divorced mother living on welfare.  She refers to herself as “the biggest failure I knew”, but credits much of her success to her failure.  She explained in a Harvard commencement speech, “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

How about you? 

Do your failures give you an intense focus on the things that really matter to you?  If not, why not?

Hopefully, these stories will help us realize that failure is not final, but merely preparation for the next step in our journey.

“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
    But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”

–Proverbs 24:16 NLT












Should Our Giving Be Motivated by Rewards?

By

Should Giving Be Motivated by Rewards

What was your immediate response to the title of this post? My guess is that most of you thought, “No way! Giving should be totally pure … with absolutely no self serving motives. After all, isn’t Agape love that pure love that expects absolutely nothing in return?” Do you know what? I thought the same thing, but I have a dilemma — how do we square these high minded notions of giving with these words from Jesus:

When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. – Matthew 6:2-4

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” – Matthew 6:19-21

There you go. In the first passage, Jesus promises that the Father will reward those who give with pure motives. He then, in the second passage, defines these rewards as treasures in heaven.

Do you get the idea that Jesus wants us to be motivated by rewards? I do, and here are some reasons why:

Jesus is practical.

As he points out, whatever treasures we gain here on earth are momentary. One only need to drive by a junk yard to see all of the rusty automobiles that were once highly valued treasures. A practical person, instead of saving up stuff that will break, rust or decay, should store up treasures which last for eternity.

Jesus knows that we can send it ahead.

After J. D. Rockefeller died, someone asked his accountant, “How much did he leave behind?” The accountant’s classic answer was, “All of it.” How utterly true! But Jesus knows something the accountant might not have known: “You might not be able to take it with you…but you can send it ahead.”

Jesus wants to change our priorities.

By comparing earthly (and thus temporary) goods with heavenly (and therefore eternal) goods, Jesus forces us to re-prioritize our lives. This stark contrast motivates us to think in heavenly terms instead of earthly. If there were no heavenly treasures, this change in priorities would not be such a clear challenge.

Jesus want to change our hearts.

Once our priorities are challenged, our hearts will also be challenged. Jesus wants us to be more than practical; he wants us to think His thoughts and feel His feelings. Focusing on heavenly treasures will bring about that change.

Randy Alcorn, in his book “The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving”, shares the following analogy:

Imagine you are alive at the end of the Civil War. You are living in the South, but you are a Northerner. You plan to move home as soon as the war is over. While in the South you have accumulated lots of Confederate currency. Now. Suppose you know for a fact that the North is going to win the war, and the end is imminent. What will you do with your Confederate currency? If you are smart, you will immediately cash in your Confederate currency for U. S. currency — the only money that will have value once the war is over. Keep only enough Confederate currency to meet your short term needs.

The message is clear: we too should invest in a currency that will have ongoing value … eternal value.

I want to be perfectly clear in stating that we never give in order to win God’s love…that is something we already have. We do so simply because our heavenly Father wants us to have some eternal investments. Remember: it is His idea, not ours.  As we live out our few years here on Earth, God want us to be enthusiastically expectant about our upcoming eternity with Him … an excitement which comes at least partly from the promise that we will have treasures in heaven.   That promise motivates me to be all the more giving today.  How about you?

Readers: Jump in here with your thoughts. Should our giving be motivated by the promise of rewards? Meet us in the comments!