The Challenge
Spend a few minutes reading, praying, and meditating on the following verses:
2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Challenge: Imagine you would get 1 Million dollars today. Write in your journal (or here https://www.quiettime.today/journal) a list of things that you would do with it. Be specific.
Next, for each of those things, write down how you will feel about them, when you are in heaven and are looking back to your life here on earth.
Bonus verse
1 Timothy 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
More information: https://www.quiettime.today/blog/challenge-10
More Information:
In the previous challenge, we saw that there is no middle ground, that we either choose life/blessings, or death/cursings. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus makes a similar observation about God versus money, that we serve either one or the other and that there is no middle ground there either.
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Mammon comes from the Aramaic word mammōnás, which stands for "the treasure a person trusts in" (Thayer). God says that you cannot serve Him and money at the same time, it’s one or the other. Why does He single out money? Because if we trust in money, we do not trust in God, but in something else, to provide us with our security, significance, pleasure, and possession. Thus this is about idolatry. God hates idolatry because it goes against the purpose for which He created us (for His glory) and it is also really bad for us. It is infinitely better for us to seek our help in God, who never changes, is always good, and will always keep His promises, than in money or people, who always change, are frequently not good, and will regularly fail to deliver on promises. And let’s not forget that when we don’t serve God, we end up serving Satan, who is hell-bent on our destruction.
The context for the verse above is the following.
Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Jesus teaches us about money, our hearts, and our eyes. Instead of focussing on building up a treasure on earth, Jesus tells us to build up a treasure (for ourselves!) in heaven. The reason given is because where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. This is so true. Whatever we invested heavily in, that is what we will care about. If we spent our lives diligently saving up a ton of money for our retirement, that is what we will care about. But if we instead use our money (which by the way will lose someday) to invest in our heavenly treasure, that is where our heart will be.
Jesus then talks about eyes and light. If we have Spiritual sight, looking at things from the spiritual perspective rather than the material perspective, then the light of God’s truth shines clearly in our whole lives, and we will walk in the light rather than darkness. So make sure you are not spiritually blind to the truth about true treasure.
But is money a bad thing? No, money is neutral, a tool that can be used for good or evil, depending on the heart of the person yielding it. It is the love of money, or the trust in money, that is evil.
1 Timothy 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
It is good to realize that we cannot take our money with us when we exchange this temporal life for the eternal. But we can use it to invest in God’s kingdom.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Jim Elliot
When we think about our money, we think wrong. It is not our money. It is God’s. God created the universe and everything in it, so He owns that all. He owns us because He made us. He owns us again because He redeemed us. And He owns us triple because we have given ourselves to Him. So if He owns us, then He also owns all that we have.
1 Chronicles 29:4 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You.
God has given us everything we have (time, talents, treasure) and we will have to give account one day of how we used it. We are stewards and God is the master. This should fundamentally change the way we view money. When we have some, we no longer think “What can I buy with it”, but “What does God want me to do with it”? With this new perspective, giving money to your church (tithing) and to Christian organizations and missionaries is no longer an obligation, but a source of joy (since you demonstrated good stewardship, and laid up for yourself treasure in heaven rather than on earth). You gained something you cannot lose, and all it cost you was something you could not keep anyway. Smart deal!
Money is a very extensive topic, and we cannot do it justice in these few paragraphs. When we follow God’s instructions for how to make money (many of which are elaborated upon by Dave Ramsey in his very successful, applicable, and biblical Financial Peace plan), both in terms of how to get money and how to get out of debt, we will learn that God very much desires to bless us with it. But then we are faced with a second, and even harder, test. How to use His money. When we spend it on our pleasure, we lose, but if we use it for good works which bring God glory, we win.
2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
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