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- The believer's
attitude about money must not depend on the abundance or lack
of it, but rather on the Provider of it.
We tend to think that when we work,
we get a paycheck, and one tenth of that money goes to the Lord.
Then, we feel like we have done someone a great favor, and we
are still thinking we gave one tenth of our money to someone.
The clear teaching of the New Testament
is that it all belongs to the Lord, and that we must allow
the Holy Spirit to teach us to see what is really going on.
When was the last time you asked
the Lord for your daily provision? (give us this day our daily
bread. . .) When you get a paycheck, have you really earned it,
or has it actually come from the Lord? If it is actually from
the Lord, why then can't you give it all away when the Spirit
urges, and trust the Lord to provide the things that you would
have spent the money on?
Christians are easily stimulated
by clever and sometimes sincere speakers who have been stirred
up in sentiment about a financial need. These people can come
to America and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes
that should be totally left alone.
There is a big move among Americans
to give Soviet pastors stable salaries because it is considered
they are underpaid. This is the enemy's plan to further ravish
the Soviet Church - but it is so easy to raise a ruckus and get
sentimentality to shell out.
- At the same
time, the same believers do not give lavishly apart from that
same kind of stimulation. There must be a cause that we know
is ongoing. It must be established. It must be successful.
- There are
a few here and there who are doing the work of the Lord, and
have no visible predictable income. They have tremendous blessing
because they must pray in their daily bread.
There are a few here and
there who have jobs, and have a predictable income and they do
not consider it theirs. They know it is the Lord's. Whether they
keep it or give it away, they always pray in their daily bread
in obedience. They are doing the work of the Lord.
- I urge you - each time you get a paycheck, lift
it up in your hand and tell the Lord out loud that you realize
this is His, and you will do with it what He wills.
Then pray in your daily bread. Your whole relationship with
money and with the Lord will change!
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