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Week 6 - FINANCIAL DISCIPLESHIP |
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"Heaven, not earth, is my home"
Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle
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This 40-day journey explored an area of our Christian life that we rarely discuss - how we view, manage, and relate to finances. Approaching this topic with
"Financial Faith" transforms our lives by saturating our convictions, our habits, and our attitude with God's power, grace, and principles.
God never intended faith to be an intellectual exercise but rather an adventure that brings us closer to him and helps us to live like Jesus.
Discipleship is always counter-cultural and often counter-intuitive. This material world targets us with a message that markets self-indulgence, discontentment, and consumerism - all aimed at "conforming us to the pattern of this world." Yet, these worldly principles promote ineffective and unhealthy financial habits that include poor (or no) financial planning, living beyond our means, accumulating debt, and underestimating the power of both saving and giving.
In the Bible, God conveys effective, time-tested, universal, and practical financial principles. This Kingdom Training class challenged us as disciples to reexamine our preconceptions and practices by applying
God's biblical principles in a way that invites God into every area of our life.
Week 1: The earth is the Lord's and everything in it
Week 2: The faithful servant of God is a prudent and diligent manager
Week 3: The borrower is slave to the lender (so get out of debt!)
Week 4: We have been made rich so that we can be generous - like God himself!
Week 5: God expects us to have a financial plan that is God's plan, not ours
Week 6: Financial Discipleship applies these principles to our lives
In this final week of Financial Faith Bible studies, we apply these biblical principles to our personal discipleship, our family, our career, our dreams, and our decisions.
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Day 39 : My Dreams |
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Proverbs 28:11
A rich man may be wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has discernment sees through him.
Consider the following thoughts from the book: Living With Less: The Upside of Downsizing
Your Life by Mark Tabb
"Life is not designed to be fulfilling." To find meaning, you have to turn to God. If you fill up your life with time/stuff it will not fill you. God's plan: your home is heaven; we are made in His image.
The road God challenges us to walk starts by choosing less of me. Charles Spurgeon said, "carve your name on hearts, not marble." If we are to have a lasting impact, we must imitate Christ:
1. Value the valuables
2. Imitate God's integrity
3. Passion - invest heart
4. Proximity - spend time
John the Baptist realized, "He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30
John 3:30
He must become greater; I must become less.
James preached, "your life is a but a mist." (James 4:13-17)
James 4:13-17
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Our challenge is to align our lives with God's will to make it count.
10 practical ways to live a "Simpler" life:
1. Live below your means, not beyond
2. Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status
3. Don't believe the hype-media/ advertisement
4. Don't accumulate-give things away
5. Spend wisely. Your money = God's possessions
6. Leave Room for Extravagance
7. Invest resources in people, not stuff. Think: what will draw you closer to people?
8. Invest in your local church
9. Enjoy what you have as a gift from God (James 1:17, Eccl. 3:13)
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Ecclesiastes 3:13
That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God.
10. Avoid being a legalistic
Reflection: What are some ways you can apply this in your life?
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