Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”
– Proverbs 11:24

The Bible speaks a great deal about money and stuff. The message is consistent and clear: we don’t own our possessions, we manage them on behalf of God. God entrusts these material things to us to use for His purposes and glory.

Those who manage money and stuff well for God will be entrusted with greater responsibilities for Him, possibly including more money and stuff. Those whose idea of management is holding onto money, piling it up in ever larger piles will ultimately see their responsibility taken away by God.

Thus we begin to understand the seeming paradox of this proverb. Quite often, those who are most generous in deploying God’s money to care for and benefit others find themselves with greater riches, including money, blessings, and joy. By contrast, those who fail to use God’s money as He commands and for the benefit of people created in His image ultimately find themselves lacking in money, blessings, and joy.

For those afraid to be generous, particularly in the current financial climate, don’t be. Be faithful, not fearful. Be faithful to God’s leading in your life, manage God’s resources well for His kingdom rather than yours, and see what happens!

“The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”” – Judges 7:2

Gideon was a nobody, chosen by God to rescue Israel from relentless foreign raiding parties. Gideon had no military background, but surely he knew he needed “more” to be successful: more soldiers, weapons, experience, and strategy. Instead, God intentionally sent him into battle with less – much less – so that Israel could never fool themselves into thinking they had saved themselves. God saved them, working through an anonymous man with the faith to believe that God would do more with less.

Too often we underestimate the God we serve. We often believe that to be successful we need “more” than we have: more people, more money, more knowledge, more ability, more experience, more plans, more certainty. Friends, we serve the God of more! He provides more than we can ever hope for or imagine. He is glorified in our “less” because then the world has no choice but to realize that He alone is our “more”.

As followers of Christ, rather than accumulating more, we should concentrate on actually exercising what we have: faith, obedience, and our relationship with God through Jesus. As we develop these, we gain the discernment, the confidence, and the wisdom to simply follow the Lord, even when we would prefer to have “more”. It’s then that’s the ordinary becomes an instrument of the extraordinary!

“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!”
– Psalm 57:5

It’s significant that this verse of praise is found in the middle of verses lamenting difficult and dangerous personal circumstances. On the run, hiding in a cave, unjustly attacked by former friends, David pauses to look heaven-ward and praise God anyway. There’s enormous power in keeping our eyes focused on the glorious God we love, even during difficult seasons. As we continue to navigate a stressful time both personally and globally, let us remember to frequently lift our eyes to heaven and pray for God to be exalted in this situation. Let us pray for God’s glory to be revealed to all throughout the earth.

During times of crisis, we can reflexively focus on ourselves. It’s natural but it only worsens the situation by reinforcing our awareness of the difficulties. Our real strength, which not only sustains us but powers us forward into the future comes from keeping our eyes on the Lord who is sovereign over both sickness and health, chaos and calm. Make time to praise Him daily. Pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven!

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” – John 4:35

All around us there are many searching for God’s kingdom. They know that this world is badly messed up and that there has to be something better, and they’re right! There are many looking for meaning and purpose to life, realizing that the shiny things of the world don’t provide that, and they’re right! There are many who instinctually long for the love of God because they sense they were made for it, and they’re right! We must have eyes to see them and the heart to share our hope in Jesus Christ with them.

God prepares this great harvest. He is the one who prepares souls to respond to the call of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. We simply must be willing to go out there and share that good news. All too often our eyes are looking down at the ground, concerned more with ourselves to avoid tripping as we walk through life. All too often our eyes are focused at the challenges immediately surrounding us. Our eyes can be focused too closely on personal problems, church problems, societal problems. Lift up your eyes! The fields are ready to harvest – let’s be faithful to go do the work God has prepared!

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” – John 3:14-15

Hundreds of years earlier, the Israelites had rebelled against God, grumbling and complaining about His provision. As both symbol of, and punishment for, their sin God sent venomous snakes to plague them in the desert. However, because He is a God who saves, He had Moses create a bronze snake on a pole and all who were dying from the poison from these snakes could look up to that snake and be healed of what was killing them.

That strange story pointed forward to what Jesus does for us. We have all rebelled against God’s good design for our life. We grumble and complain about our situation, and prefer to do whatever we like no matter what. We’ve all been poisoned by sin and we all deserve the agony of an eternity separated from our holy God who doesn’t permit sin into His presence.

However, because God is a God who saves, He sent His Son Jesus to bring healing. By His sacrifice on the cross, in which Jesus Christ was lifted high, laid low in the tomb, and raised back to life even higher, He fulfilled this promise and opened the way to healing and reconciliation between sinful humans and our sinless God. All who believe in Jesus, all who look to Him for healing from the poison of sin and death will receive eternal life: the knowledge, relationship, and presence of God forever more.