The Basics

It is now obvious that the carefully laid financial plans for the future that we designed to perpetuate our lifestyles are being shredded by an economic hurricane now blowing 'round the world! Savings are gone, investments are worth half of what they were worth two years ago. Despite $billions being thrown into the system by Uncle Sam and his cousins in Europe and Asia, the financial industry is in lock-down.

I would be dishonest if I pretend to be unconcerned! My life will be very different than how I anticipated it to be in the coming years. But, does different necessarily mean terrible? Perhaps not. Just maybe America's financial woes will break some of our worst habits and force us to get back to the basics of life - thrift instead of consumption, caring for our friends and family instead of thinking it is the government's job to do it, investing our time in our communities and families instead of being so focused on our individual ideals, and abandoning expensive pursuits of self-oriented pleasure for simpler things of greater and lasting value.

Believer, in the middle of this mess, I that the real difference between those who know Christ and those who do not to will become obvious. That difference? HOPE! If we start eating pills, drinking too much, and living in unrelieved anxiety, it will reveal the bankruptcy of our soul; showing us that our faith is more rhetoric than reality! If we are steady and face the future with courage, helping others to build new lives around eternal treasure, God will be pleased and we will be blessed even if we are broke.

Jesus' wonderful words recorded in Matthew's Gospel take even greater significance for us right now. His financial advice is timeless and not subject to the value of our 401(k), the falling DOW indicators, or the collapse of world banking systems.

Read these words carefully like you're seeing them for the first time.“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith? “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:24-34, NLT)

Let me urge you to patience and prudence. Don't allow yourself to become reactionary, jerked up and down spiritually and emotionally by each day's bad news. In balance, don't tune out and drop out, either. Followers of Jesus Christ, while separate from this world and headed for a home in Heaven, are to be about Heaven's business here on earth. We need great wisdom, which God promises to give to those who ask, to be pacesetters for our friends and families in times like these. Get back to basics! Refuse endless worry. Build trust in God. Reject greed. Be generous. For "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." (2 Corinthians 9:8-11, NIV)
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My hope is built on nothing less,
than Jesus' blood and righteousness!
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' Name.

On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand!

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