Financial Independence

Working toward financial independence should be the goal of every Christian. That means that you will one day be able to live without debt and even make money with money. The first step toward financial independence is to learn to live within your means. It is a simple principle but very hard for many people. My father came home from the drugstore with a new watch he bought on credit when he was ten years old. My grandmother made him take it back, but she set aside a jar where he could save his money. When he had enough he paid cash for the watch. He said that was the best lesson he ever had in money management. One of the traps that keep people in debt is credit cards. A credit card should only be used if paid off at the end of the month. If you can’t do that then get rid of the credit cards.

There are two reasons to borrow money: one is good, and the other is not. First, we borrow to invest such as buying a house or a car. The house grows in value and the vehicle is necessary for a job. The second reason to borrow is to consume. This means buying what you cannot afford with your regular income, and as a result, you incur debt. In so doing, you have committed your time and future to pay back that debt. You will also have to pay outrageous interest charges.

Good money management includes planning for emergencies. Everyone should save money in an emergency fund to buy a new hot water heater or repair their car when needed. Then, beyond that, we should determine what are our financial goals. Such as paying off the car and the house sooner than scheduled because that frees up income. Secondly, we save for vacations so we don’t have to put them on the credit card. We save for the kid’s college fund, for retirement, and beyond that, for investments. Make sure you set aside an allotment to your savings each month. This is how you make time work for you. Someone said, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best is now.” Having some life insurance is wise, so those you leave behind are financially prepared to carry on.

Making money with money means investing in low-risk opportunities, such as CDs, Bonds, Mutual funds, and Money Markets, so we are paid interest instead of paying others interest.

Good money management begins with putting God first and giving the Lord his portion. Then the rest is yours to manage with prudence and discipline. Financial independence is a choice just as indebtedness is a choice. As servants of the Lord, we view our resources as belonging to him and manage them for Him.

Our Blindness

Sometimes, we wind up in terrible, awkward situations because of our stupidity or arrogance. When we do, we make things worse if we believe we can get ourselves out of the mess. Things improve only when we acknowledge our mistakes and take responsibility for them. If we have sinned, we need to ask God for forgiveness and the forgiveness of others we have sinned against. That is not easy but it is necessary.

David found himself in a highly awkward situation once. He had taken his 600 men and their families and moved to the land of the Philistines to escape the hand of Saul who was hunting him like a fugitive. David was tired of running and he wanted a place to call home. He did not pray about this decision and got no direction from God to make the move.

Achish King of the Philistines welcomed him and gave him a home in Ziglag. Things worked out for David for about 16 months. Then, the Philistines declared war on Israel and massed for an attack. David was asked to accompany them with his men in battle and he consented to do so. That is awkward when you will battle against the very people you believe you are called to govern someday.

But, as they were preparing to march the commanders (1 Samuel 29:1-11) objected to David going with them. They believed he would turn on them in the heat of the battle, and they trusted him. When Achish informed David that he trusted him, but his commanders did not and that he could not go to battle, David should have been relieved, but he was not. Instead, he complained, “But what have I done?” asked David. “What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can’t I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” (1 Samuel 29:8).

You would think that David would thank the Lord that this door had closed but he did not. David has had his own plan, which he believes will extricate himself from this complicated situation. Later, David would come to see that God had a plan that would be much better than David’s. In the providence of God, David was kept away from the battle that would end Saul’s life. In the same providential arrangement, David’s desire to save his people from the Philistines was also blocked. Solomon wrote, “In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him” (Prov 21:1).

David’s first mistake was going to the Philistines and not trusting God to keep him and his people safe. The second mistake was attempting to save himself and not relying on God. The third mistake was trusting in his own plan instead of praying for God to reveal his plan. In all of this, David was teaching these mistakes to his sons, Absalom, Adonija, and Amnon, to be deceitful. We must remember that someone is always watching and learning from us, whether from our victories, defeats, or mistakes.

Brokenness

It is interesting how we use the word blessed. We say “God bless you” to someone who sneezes, maybe hoping we don’t get what they have. When I sneeze, people say, “God help us.” When something good happens, we say, “We got a huge blessing.” However, Jesus used the word very differently than we might expect. In his Sermon on the Mount, he gave us eight beatitudes or blessed attitudes that reflect what a follower of Christ should look like.

Jesus gave us eight descriptions of a blessed person in Matt 5:3-10. The first four are beatitudes of need, and the last four are beatitudes of action. The first and the last beatitudes end with “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” While these are descriptions of the transformed Christian life, they also depict the longing heart for heaven. The ultimate reward where there is no sin and the curse of sin is gone forever.

The first four beatitudes are:

·         “Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit”

·         “Blessed Are Those Who Mourn”

·         “Blessed Are The Meek”

·         “Blessed Are Those Who Hunger And Thirst For Righteousness”

The first, “the poor in spirit,” is the starting place for the Christian life. It’s not your family, not your occupation, not your money, not your success, not even your own morality. You bring nothing but your sinfulness, but you receive his grace and mercy—that is poor in spirit.

The second, “those who mourn,” describes the accompanying emotion of contrition and sorrowfulness for sin. The third, “the meek,” is the disposition of humility that comes from God’s transforming work in us. The fourth, “those who hunger for righteousness,” is a real hunger and thirst for righteousness and holiness.

Jesus told a parable that exemplifies these first four parables. Two men went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisees prayed to be heard and thanked God for his goodness and that he was not like the tax collector. The tax collector did not open his mouth but hit himself in the chest and asked God to have mercy on him—a sinner. God heard the tax collector’s prayer but not the Pharisee’s (Luke 18:10-14). All four beatitudes are found in the tax collector.

The second four beatitudes are:

·         “Blessed Are The Merciful,”

·         “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart,”

·         “Blessed Are The Peacemakers,”

·         “Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted.”

The fifth, “the merciful,” are those who appreciate God’s forgiveness and are willing to forgive others. The sixth, “the pure in heart,” are those who aren’t motivated by man’s approval but serve God and others with an undivided heart. The seventh, “the peacemakers,” brings reconciliation between two people who are at odds with each other, between nations, and most importantly, between God and man through the gospel. The eight, “the persecuted,” are those reviled and rejected for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hopelessness

Hopelessness is the darkest of all human experiences. It happens when a person can see no future worth living. Hopelessness strips away all motivation for living depriving us of all enjoyment and fulfilment.

 A 2003 article in the New Yorker magazine describes an unknown man jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The height of the bridge is 220 feet. The bridge spans the open sea, and a jump from the bridge is lethal. Only one person is known to have survived, and that is with critical injuries. The person hits the surface of the water at 75 miles an hour, causing almost certain and immediate death. The man’s psychiatrist, Jerome Motto, said this suicide affected him the most all the suicides he had dealt with. Following the man’s death, the psychiatrist accompanied the assistant medical examiner to the man’s apartment. The man was in his 30s and lived alone. They found in his apartment a suicide note that he had left: “I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump.” The note underscores the fragile state of mind of many who live in severe depression.

This past week I received word that someone I knew who took his life. I was shocked but only reminded of how much people struggle to find purpose and meaning while hiding it from those around them. People lose hope in the future because they have experienced repeated disappointment, causing them to become obsessively negative. Just because we are followers of Christ does not give us immunity against such hopelessness. The clouds of darkness can block the sunlight, so we can’t see God’s sovereign purposes.

Jeremiah, while surveying the carnage and devastation left by the Babylonians when they conquered Jerusalem, wrote the Book of Lamentations. The prophet feels absolutely hopeless until he begins to think about God’s faithfulness:

Lamentations 3:21-25 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

The prophet Isaiah says look up to heaven if you want hope:

Isaiah 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.