If you have lost your job, watched your retirement portfolio shrink, been overwhelmed with mortgage or credit card debt, you are not alone. Any one of these situations can serve as a great motivator to turn to God's economy. But, as good as they are, they are not good enough.
It is important that we understand why we handle money by God's economy and not man's economy. God's Word is clear that the way that we handle money is an outward indication of our spiritual condition. (Luke 12:34; Luke 16:11)
The "Get me out of the financial mess" motive for following God's economy is a very tangible way that God uses money to get our attention. The sad fact is that too often we never get past the "Get me out of the financial mess" motive for following God's economy. We never get to the point of following God's economy as part of allowing God to control all areas of our life, including finances.
Recently Joyce and I had the opportunity of listening to Chuck Bentley (CEO of Crown Financial Ministries) lead an excellent series called the "Root of Riches". It was based on the word "root" from First Timothy 6:10a. (For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil…) Of the four nouns in that passage (love, money, root and evil) root is probably the one I would have said is least important. That changed when he got done with it.
In his presentation he mentioned that believers are referred to as trees in the Bible (Luke 6:43-45). And just like trees, we have roots. This is what caught my attention. I believe that in many ways our roots are our motives.
He explained the three primary roots in man's economy are described in Second Timothy 3. They are; the love of money, love of self, and love of pleasure. These roots will determine the fruit that a tree will bear. I believe that sometimes these three roots are also three motives many people have for trying to live by God's economy. They want more money and they want to indulge in a self gratifying life of pleasure. In other words they turn to God in a financial crisis to "Get them out of the financial mess" they find themselves.
Just like the root of a tree determines the fruit it will bear, our motives do the same thing. If our motive for following God's economy is to reduce stress, increase enjoyment of the things money buys, and financial independence for self gratification, our fruit will be worldly and reflect those motives. If our motive for living by God's economy is to live a life pleasing to God, our fruit will reflect this motive. Matthew 7:20 says "So then, you will know them by their fruits".
If we follow God's economy and find ourselves in prosperity, praise God. If we follow God's economy and find ourselves in poverty, praise God. Our financial destination is unimportant. What is important is why we follow God's economy. We follow God's economy because He is Lord of our life and we love Him and want to please Him.
God wants are hearts, which includes our roots and our motives. If our motive for following God's economy stops at "Get me out of this financial mess" or anything short of a total desire to live a life pleasing to Him, our roots are those described in Second Timothy 3 and our fruit is not pleasing to God. (Matthew 6:32-33)
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