Finances

Exposing The Five Fallacies About The Purposes of Money
This material appears courtesy of Os Hillman

Fallacy # 1: My money is to be used to buy anything I want.
If we are having our basic needs met for food and clothing, we are then considered to have riches. Jesus cautioned us against living a lifestyle that required more than our basic necessities. However, it is clear that Jesus was not against wealth, but a dependence on wealth. Jesus continually taught that a dependence on anything other than God was evil. Whenever Jesus determined that money was an issue for the individual, He addressed it and found that the individual could not let go. This was true for the rich young ruler who, when talking with Jesus about what he must do to inherit the kingdom Jesus told him to do the one thing that would be hardest -- to give away his wealth and follow Him. Jesus was not saying this was what every person must do, only the rich young ruler because Jesus knew this was the greatest stumbling block for him to coming to Christ fully. For others of us it could have been something else Jesus would have asked us to give up. (Matthew 19:16-30). Jesus also gave us another example of the problem money creates for any follower of Jesus in the parable of the sower. He describes four types of people in the parable of the sewer. (Matthew 13:3-8), (Matthew 13:18).

As a Christian I felt I had been following Christ fully. However, I discovered that I fell into the category of the sower who was deceived and had the cares of the world ruling me. The deceitfulness of wealth had choked the Word in my life. I was not yielding fruit any longer in my life. It is a subtle trap. Much like the frog in the boiling pot. Gradually we begin to acquire and walk the treadmill of material gain. Those around us begin to expect more and more. Soon we begin expanding our lifestyle. Before I knew it, I was worrying about how I would take care of what I had acquired. My emphasis became what I owned versus my relationship with Jesus and His kingdom. One day I woke up and realized I had a cold heart toward God. Apathy toward the things of God became apparent. However, I was still going through the motions of service toward God, but with no power. I believe there are a huge number of American Christians living in this category today. Christ is no longer Lord of our lives, much less our money. The greater independence money gave me, the less dependence on God I needed. God had to remove the money in order to get my attention. Otherwise, He knew I'd never take such action myself because He knows how difficult it is to do this. I'm thankful He did this for me. Christ talked much about money in the kingdom because He knew how much of a problem it was. This is why we have so few who are bearing 100, 60, or 30 times what is sown. We've stayed in the outer ring that prevents us from becoming real fruit bearers.

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