The other day I spoke with a very bright thirty-five-year-old man. . . a microbiologist, nuclear physicist. . . well, he has the degree to be a microbiologist, nuclear physicist. Instead, he’s a postal worker who comes home to an empty house everyday. This man suffers from social anxiety. He’s uncomfortable every moment he’s around others. And he’s miserable.
Now, I’m all for us feeling good about ourselves and being grateful for the gifts that God’s given us. But in the midst of our happy talk, we need to accept that to some degree or another we each have a sick mind. So sick that microbiologists end up delivering mail. Wealthy people shoplift. Healthy people gain 180 pounds. And counselors end up in inappropriate relationships with those they wanted to help.
Our sick minds won’t lead us to a place of health and wholeness. You have to reach beyond what’s in your head, and reach out for the help you need. Reach out to God. Reach out to others. Be attentive to what the Holy Spirit is saying, in your thought life and in the circumstances of your life. Be responsible and do something!
We may borrow money with the idea to use it wisely, but the temptation to spend what we have, even of borrowed money, can lead to some very difficult problems. Indeed, spending borrowed money allows many of us to live in ways that we can’t afford. Temptation to borrow and spend is the heartbeat of a consumer culture that affects the rich and poor. When tempted, we should seek God’s provision, because borrowing can be a curse .
“Make a solemn covenant with God that by His blessing you will pay your debts and then owe no man anything if you live on porridge and bread. It is so easy in preparing your table to throw out of your pocket twenty-five cents for extras. Take care of the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves. It is the mites here and the mites there that are spent for this, that, and the other, that soon run up into dollars. Deny self at least while you are walled in with debts. . . . Do not falter, be discouraged, or turn back. Deny your taste, deny the indulgence of appetite, save your pence and pay your debts. Work them off as fast as possible. When you can stand forth a free man again, owing no man anything, you will have achieved a great victory.” - Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship, p. 257.
The desire for instant gratification is symptomatic of an uncontrolled mind; it is an enemy of patience that undermines long-term goals, mocking and injuring accountability. To delay gratification is a learned principle; it is a life skill that helps us manage situations and pressures, especially the temptations that the world has to offer, such as borrowing money unwisely. This idea, however, is not popular in a world built on the indulgence of instant reward, quick fixes, and get-rich-quick schemes. Once we have experienced instant gratification, we are more likely to choose the short-term reward again, and then again, and again. . . . Stewards of the gifts God has given us must not fall into that trap.
We should think of our means not as income but as resources that we have a responsibility to manage. A budget is the method we should use to accomplish this task. Planning a budget is a learned skill that needs to be studied thoughtfully. Disciplined practice and effort are needed to be successful in managing a balanced financial plan (. If we make the commitment to succeed in our financial stewardship plan, we will be able to avoid embarrassing financial mistakes.
If you are having a problem with money management, set up a budget. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as totaling all your expenditures for a few months and then averaging in your monthly expenses. The key is to live within your means, no matter what, and to do all that is possible to avoid debt.
Ants labor to save provisions for the winter (Prov. 6:6-8). We are wise to consider their ways when we save money routinely for a specific purpose. The point in saving is to have resources available for our living expenses or needs as opposed to wasting or hoarding what we earn. Managing money requires wisdom, budgeting, and discipline. If all we do is save for ourselves, we are pilfering God’s possessions instead of stewarding them.
“Money needlessly spent is a double loss. Not only is it gone, but its potential for earnings is also gone. Had we set it aside, it could have been multiplying on earth through savings or in heaven through giving. . . . Saving is a discipline that develops authority over money. Instead of letting money take us wherever our whims incline, we take control.” - Randy C. Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity (Carol Stream: Illinois, Tyndale House Publishers, 2003), p. 328.
“For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow” (Job 8:9, NKJV).
You can stop a clock, but not the movement of time. Time does not wait; it keeps moving forward even if we stand still and do nothing.
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:14
The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Ps. 90:10, 12
Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Ps. 39:4, 5;
With something so limited and nonrenewable as time, it is important that Christians be good stewards of it. Thus we should develop the habit of using time wisely by focusing on what is important in this life and the next. We must manage time based on what the Word of God reveals to us as important, because once time is up, it can’t be renewed. If we lose money we may eventually get it back, maybe even more than what we first lost. Not so with time. A moment lost is a moment lost forever. We can more easily put a broken egg back in its shell than we recapture even a moment of the past. Thus, time is one of the most precious commodities given to us by God. How important, then, that we develop the habit of making the most of every moment we have been given.
“Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.
The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin.” - Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 342.
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15, 16, NKJV).
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6, 19-21
“‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21, NKJV) is an appeal from Jesus. The full magnitude of this statement can be seen from the preceding two verses, which contrast storing our treasures on earth with storing them in heaven. Three words describe earth: moths, rust, and thieves (see Matt. 6:19), all of which imply just how temporal and transient our earthly treasure is. Who hasn’t learned just how quickly earthly things can vanish? On earth everything is unstable, uncertain, and insecure; it is subject to decay, destruction, stealing, and loss. Heaven is the opposite: everything is eternal, durable, secure, and imperishable. In heaven there is no loss.
Look at your possessions. Even if you have only a very few, sooner or later most of them will be thrown away. The exception might be an heirloom. But a wise steward should be concerned with putting treasures in heaven for safekeeping. There, unlike here, you don’t have to worry about recessions, thieves, or even plunderers. Matthew 6:19-21 contains one of the most important concepts on stewardship. Your treasure pulls, tugs, coerces, draws, demands, allures, and desires to control your heart. In the material world your heart follows your treasure, so where your treasure is remains vitally important. The more we focus on earthly needs and gains, the harder it is to think on heavenly matters. Professing belief in God but keeping our treasure here on earth is hypocritical. Our actions must agree with our words. In other words, we see our treasures on earth by sight, but we must see our offerings as treasures in heaven by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). Though we, of course, need to be practical and provide for our needs (even retirement), it’s crucial to always keep the big picture, eternity, in mind.
