Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today- it is critical that I have a clear strategy around wealth, otherwise I will be seduced into servitude.
Luke 16:9, 13 TPT
[9] It is important that you use the wealth of this world to demonstrate your friendship with God by winning friends and blessing others…..It is impossible for a person to serve two masters at the same time. You will be forced to love one and reject the other. One master will be despised and the other will have your loyal devotion. It is no different with God and the wealth of this world. You must enthusiastically love one and definitively reject the other.”
Observation
In a world that is shaped by the stories of self -satisfaction, and accumulation, wealth demands my servitude. I must get more, and I must accumulate it. Top up my super, buy another investment property, get that new car, buy that new pair of Nikes. It is so easy for me to serve at this alter. It’s not that wealth is bad it’s what wealth does to me, or rather what I do with it. Is my wealth, in whatever degree I have it, used to honour and glorify God and bless others or used to my self-satisfaction ends? My investment strategy must be shaped by the reality that – I don’t even know what tomorrow brings, or how many tomorrow’s I have.
I wrestle with questions – When does ‘responsible future planning’ become my master? If I serve God does He have my future covered? Is the wealth I have today a gift from God for my future? The questions have merit but it seems clear that the wealth investment strategy of the Kingdom of God is – do I “use the wealth of this world to demonstrate my friendship with God by winning friends and blessing others?” If I keep this shaping story front and centre of my life then this is more important than the planning questions.
Wealth so easily becomes a master that I serve and two masters never works, “it’s impossible.” Masters compete for my heart, wealth wants my heart, it wants me to love and serve and be passionate towards it. Wealth wants me to pursue and honour and sing the praises of it. Wealth wants to replace God in my life as my master. It’s so clear yet so deceptive. Wealth that masters me will replace my love, passion and service of God. “I must enthusiastically love one and definitively reject the other.” That’s the choice.
Application
Wake up! This is tough news for it reveals how deceived I am by the seduction of wealth. The little I have seems to have too big a place in my life. I have given it too big a voice and have served its accumulate and self stories without inspection from a Kingdom perspective. I must wake up and reinvest. I will Kingdom invest any wealth I have in “demonstrating my friendship with God and winning friends and blessing others.” My King and others will be the focus of my wealth investment.
Response
Thank you that you expose my brokenness and call me into a bigger life. Thank you that your journey with me as I become whole and don’t demand wholeness from me before you walk intimately with me. Thank you for whatever financial gifts I receive thank you for your kingdom investment strategy. Thank you that generosity and others is your shaping story for my financial life. I am blessed to know how to live in fullness.
Meditation
Is wealth mastering you?
How do you use whatever finances you have?
What is your investment strategy?
JOURNEY DEEPER
