Readings for today: 1 Chronicles 28-29, Romans 5:6-21, Psalms 15, Proverbs 19:18-19
Someone once famously remarked that the last thing to be converted in a person’s life is their checkbook. It brings a humorous image to my mind of a person being baptized while holding their wallet in the air. Money is a tough subject for many. It’s deeply personal. There never feels like there’s enough to go around. Many believers around the world live in life-threatening poverty. The Church has often manipulated and scammed the faithful. We have sold indulgences. We have accumulated great wealth and possessions. We aren’t always faithful to take the resources entrusted to us and use them for God’s glory in the world. I am sure this is why the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. It’s why Jesus spent so much time on the subject. He knows what wealth does to our corrupt hearts. He knows greed is an insatiable desire. He knows how easy it is for us to fall into the trap of always wanting more.
That’s why I love David’s prayer so much. It beautifully frames how we are to think about money and wealth and possessions. Listen to his words again, "Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.” David understands God owns it all. Everything he has is a gift from God. Everything he’s achieved is because God stood at his side. God is the only one who has the right to claim ownership over this world. He alone is worthy. He alone deserves all the praise and glory for what He has done. He reigns over the universe and, as king, it is up to Him to bestow riches and honor on those who serve Him.
Imagine how your perspective would change if you truly believed everything you owned was a gift from God? Imagine if you truly believed God reigned and ruled over your life? Not as an abstract thought but as an actual, concrete, daily experience? Would you handle your money differently? Would you cling to your possessions less tightly? Would your anxiety and fear over the future diminish as you found yourself trusting more fully in God to provide?
David clearly understood his position before the Lord. Throughout the course of his life and despite his many, many mistakes, David never seemed to lose sight of how far he’d come and who had raised him up. David was humble before the Lord. He held onto position and power and his possessions lightly. "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.” David understood his life was but a shadow. So fleeting. So frail. He was here today and gone tomorrow. He came from the dust and to dust he will return. His short lifespan was minuscule in comparison to God’s eternity and all that he had accomplished and accumulated in his life was just as temporal.
How does godly humility change your perspective on your life? Do you understand and reflect on how far you have come and the grace of God in bringing you there? Do you grasp how truly insignificant you are in the grand sweep of God’s eternal history? Do you hold onto your achievements and wealth and influence lightly or do you find yourself grasping them ever more tightly as the years pass?
David knows wealth is a major temptation. If we are not careful, love of money can supplant the love of God in our hearts. So he prays to the Lord, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you.” (1 Chronicles 29:10-18)
Keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you. What a great prayer! What a godly desire! David, at the end of his reign and the end of his life, does not ask for more power. More wealth. More success. Longer life. Greater glory for his kingdom and his people. He simply asks God to keep their hearts true towards Him. To keep them generous and joyful in their giving. To be godly stewards of all they have been given. To grasp how richly blessed they have been so they can continue to be a blessing in this world. May this be our prayer today as well!
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Chronicles 1-3, Romans 6, Psalms 16, Proverbs 19:20-21