Thursday, January 14, 2010

Money..

Had another great discussion on Wednesday night about finances and our understanding of how we use them for God's kingdom.

How do we save for our later years in life and be good stewards of the finances we have and still trust that God will meet the needs we have?

In Proverbs 30 the ant is praised as being wise for storing up food for itself in the summer, but in Matthew 6 we are reminded of how God provides for the even the birds of the air.

So where is the middle ground that God will be pleased with?

The greater concept that Shar and I are discussing is this: all we have comes from and belongs to God. If that is so, then is my savings account a safety net if God does not provide? Does my tax deferred annuity question God's ability to take care of us? The ant stored food for the summer. How many summers is enough?

Another question deals with my desire to retire. For me in my teaching career that age of retirement is 52. Then what? What section of scripture deals with retirement? Where does God encourage us to work hard for 30 years and then stop and rest and enjoy the good life? Is that a biblical idea or an American idea?

The conclusion to our discussion was that we need to individually work to have biblical principles guiding our finances and not American or worldly principles dictating our financial goals, thoughts and decisions. What does God want me to do with the money he has entrusted to my care?

2 comments:

Scott F said...

I have a friend who maintains this blog callded, "Money Help for Christians" and he deals with a lot of these and other topics. You should check it out and subscribe it in your RSS.

http://www.moneyhelpforchristians.com/

Cousin Liz said...

Just because we all hope to be able to retire from our jobs, we should never retire from God's work He gave us to do. I enjoyed your thoughts on money!