If you are a spiritual person, you will know this is a big deal. Making a contract w/ God pretty much it is a covenant. It is not merely to say and forget. God will honor His end. The question is whether I will keep mine.
I have a principle of if I am going to say it, I better honor it. Or else I might as well not say it. Since I made a declaration, I reflected on it.
Well lately I haven't reflected on the declaration itself. However, I have seeked God continuous on my life.
Specifically I have been pondering on financial security vs spiritual security. Am I storing heavenly treasures or am I merely collecting earthly ones.
A passage that made me reflected even more is Luke 12:13-21 [The parable of the rich fool]
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
I am 28. When I turn to 65, what would I have in abundance? Crops? It is funny about this parable because the more 'riches' the fool has, the more he think about where to store his 'riches'.
When it comes to physical riches, I test myself on faith. Giving it away. Purposely not focusing on retirement. Rather focus on using the resources God bless me right now to expand His Kingdom. Deliberately deny myself.
This is a very counter-cultural method. I can even foresee people at my church will look at me weird. At the end, I just want to be sure that my focus is storing heavenly riches.
I remember a long time ago, a friend ask me, 'don't I want to make enough money to buy toys for my kids'. Back then, I don't know what to say. Now I do. I rather give my kids the Bible. I rather show them I am a man that lives by faith. I rather show them I am rely on God and not on my might. I rather show them that joy is through God's grace and not merely possessions.
And so this is my spiritual journey.....
1 comment:
Congrats on your Covenant, Cliff...that's a big step to take. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with saving for retirement, or saving for your kids' education, or things of that nature. The point of the parable is to simply show that saving riches is wrong ONLY when it detracts from your relationship with God, or when you focus on your worldly riches instead of a spiritually "rich" relationship. But, nothing in the parable, or anywhere else in scripture, prohibits you from saving, providing for yourself and your children, etc. Regardless, you're on my prayer list -- sounds like a wonderful spiritual journey.
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