Give To Advance God's Kingdom
July 11, 2005
Several years ago a forlorn friend with a manufactured smile
told me he had buried $40,000 in cash . . . in the crawl space
of his house. Needless to say, that revelation captured my
attention like a talking taco.
"You seem troubled," I said--expressing an obvious
understatement"
"Yeah, that's not the bad part," he said.
"What's the bad part?" I asked.
He held up a partially dissolved and fragmented
$50 bill and said, "I dug it up yesterday and the water-tight
canisters had leaked. Water and mud had seeped into the
cylinders and destroyed all the money." He emphasized the word
"all."
That sad story turns tragic with the realization
that what my friend did with those green backs, we all do daily.
I don't mean we bury cash and dig up confetti. I mean we fail to
invest our financial resources in a way that will bring the
greatest return on the dollar. This happens because we fail to
follow God's investment strategy.
Simply put, God wants us to use our money to meet
our needs, care for our family, save for the future, and invest
in advancing his kingdom. The first two are as easy for most
people as sliding down a greased pole. The third one evades many
and the fourth one seems as hard as climbing up that same
greased pole. Part of the reason investing in the kingdom proves
so challenging is because most people are enslaved to money and
have none to give away or would rather spend what they've got on
themselves.
Once we're financially free, or on the road to
freedom, we'll be able and willing to give to advance God's
kingdom. How do we do that?
1) Include in your budget specific monies for
funding God's kingdom.
2) Prayerfully consider the needs of those individuals and
ministries that are reaching unbelievers, nurturing the poor and
needy, caring for the imprisoned, or protecting the weak.
Investigate how those you're considering utilize their financial
resources.
3) Give joyfully knowing that your gift will not only meet the
needs of the recipient but bring pleasure to God.
Jesus asks us to do something that defies logic
and observable reality. The reason trusting God with our money
proves so difficult is because we may not see all the benefits
of our gift during our lifetime. We give trusting that God will
use our money to accomplish his spiritual purposes. But there's
another reason for extreme generosity on our part. Jesus said:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in
and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not
break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also" (Matthew 6:19-20).
Giving to advance God's kingdom is the purest form
of long term investments. We've all heard the nursery rhyme:
"Finders keepers, losers' weepers." Jesus said: "Finders
weepers, losers' keepers." We'll only hold for eternity that
which we let go of and lose for the kingdom.
As a child I once took some Monopoly money to the
grocery store and tried to buy a candy bar. I embarrassed my
mother and brought a chuckle to the checker who informed me,
"I'm sorry that money is no good in this store."
I had a hard time comprehending my mother's
explanation that Monopoly money was play money. After all, the
previous night my sisters had used it to buy hotels, banks and
businesses. Of course, the misunderstandings of a child provide
parents with "precious" memories. And they provide me with a
point . . . what Monopoly money is to U.S. currency, U.S.
currency is to the spiritual dollar. But suppose you had the
power to legally convert Monopoly money into U.S. currency.
Would you do that? Indeed, we all would. I suspect there would
be a massive run on toy stores.
But you can't, can you? However, you are able to
take U.S. currency and convert it into the currency of heaven by
giving it away to advance God's kingdom. And the more you give
away the more you'll have when you get to heaven.
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