Thursday, December 10, 2009
Re-post: Enough
Re-posting a note about "enough," a post I did a while back. I think it has some relevance to the current series that we are doing at lifechurch.tv called The Blessed Life.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Blessed Life: A Heart of Generosity
The "bag" is not enough.
The "basket" is more than enough.
The ''barn" is infinitely more than enough.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to watch this week's message from lifechurch.tv before reading on- click on this link to watch. http://www.lifechurch.tv/message-archive.
From time to time, Craig will take us through these kinds of messages, those that demonstrate a progressive level of commitment to Christ. In this message, the bag mindset is what we were pre-programed with, and the barn mindset is that which we hope to posses.
Most of us have a hard time graduating past the bag mindset because the bag equals security. it equals comfort. it equals our control of our lives. moreover, it seats money on the throne of our lives. If we don't have enough in the bag, we strive to spend less or make more so we can live the lifestyle that we want, have the security we desire, and to ultimately live comfortably. The foremost problem with the bag mindset is that the bag and what it contains is the lord of our lives, and not God.
The funny thing to me is that as tightly as we cling to the bag in our hand, God has already given us a basket and a barn. In order to experience barn blessings, we have to let go of the bag, because the barn requires stewardship (for it all belongs to Him anyway), and you can't steward the barn with a bag mindset. But a change of mind requires a change of lordship over our lives.
When God is on the throne of our lives, we turn to Him for all of our needs - He is our provider. Yes, this is difficult because it requires FAITH- and not just faith in faith, but faith IN God. And it is not blind faith or faith with out reason. He is faithful, and we can trust Him. Because His ways are higher than our ways, because He loves us, because He is a good God, we can trust Him- even when our prayers are not answered the way we wanted Him to, even when tragedy comes, because He is sovereignly in control, working all things together for those that love Him, that are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). As long as Christ is not King of our lives, we will continue to endure disappointment, dissatisfaction, frustration, and discontentment.
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Matthew 6:24.
Closing thought: Our money has the words "in God we trust" written on it. Shouldn't this be a reminder to us that it is God whom we trust, and not money?
Which one will we serve? can't have it both ways. How have you experienced the change from the bag mindset to the basket or the barn mindset? Share your thoughts- many of you reading this may be like me, just now becoming aware of our condition, and desiring to take steps towards trusting God and not money.
The "basket" is more than enough.
The ''barn" is infinitely more than enough.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to watch this week's message from lifechurch.tv before reading on- click on this link to watch. http://www.lifechurch.tv/message-archive.
From time to time, Craig will take us through these kinds of messages, those that demonstrate a progressive level of commitment to Christ. In this message, the bag mindset is what we were pre-programed with, and the barn mindset is that which we hope to posses.
Most of us have a hard time graduating past the bag mindset because the bag equals security. it equals comfort. it equals our control of our lives. moreover, it seats money on the throne of our lives. If we don't have enough in the bag, we strive to spend less or make more so we can live the lifestyle that we want, have the security we desire, and to ultimately live comfortably. The foremost problem with the bag mindset is that the bag and what it contains is the lord of our lives, and not God.
The funny thing to me is that as tightly as we cling to the bag in our hand, God has already given us a basket and a barn. In order to experience barn blessings, we have to let go of the bag, because the barn requires stewardship (for it all belongs to Him anyway), and you can't steward the barn with a bag mindset. But a change of mind requires a change of lordship over our lives.
When God is on the throne of our lives, we turn to Him for all of our needs - He is our provider. Yes, this is difficult because it requires FAITH- and not just faith in faith, but faith IN God. And it is not blind faith or faith with out reason. He is faithful, and we can trust Him. Because His ways are higher than our ways, because He loves us, because He is a good God, we can trust Him- even when our prayers are not answered the way we wanted Him to, even when tragedy comes, because He is sovereignly in control, working all things together for those that love Him, that are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). As long as Christ is not King of our lives, we will continue to endure disappointment, dissatisfaction, frustration, and discontentment.
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Matthew 6:24.
Closing thought: Our money has the words "in God we trust" written on it. Shouldn't this be a reminder to us that it is God whom we trust, and not money?
Which one will we serve? can't have it both ways. How have you experienced the change from the bag mindset to the basket or the barn mindset? Share your thoughts- many of you reading this may be like me, just now becoming aware of our condition, and desiring to take steps towards trusting God and not money.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)