Financial Insecurity Part 1
What about my loss?
86,000 Dollars. That’s the amount of money the court judgement said I was legally entitled to and the perpetrators that ripped me off had to pay me. The only problem was, they didn’t have any money.
After I finally paid off the attorney’s fees for getting the “Judgement” for me, I decided to forgave the offenders anyway. The truth was they couldn’t pay so I might as well let it go.
Since forgiveness means tearing up the IOU, I had to swallow hard on that big of a loss. God knows I needed the money. What I couldn’t swallow was the hypocrisy of asking God to forgive my sins every day, while holding this much smaller debt against these people. The passage that says if I don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive me, disturbed me…bad. So, I let it go.
The challenge of the entire matter from beginning to end lay in only one question, “what about my loss?”
The man that walked away
That question turned the “Rich Young Ruler” away from eternal life. The answer was standing right in front of him, speaking to him in a clear audible voice. “Sell all you have, give it away to the poor and come follow me.” Nevertheless, the blaring volume of his concern for his money deafened him to Jesus instruction.
Father’s example
Abram’s example begs the same question. After the slaughter of the four Kings in Genesis 15, he not only tithed to Melchizedek but returned all the spoils those Kings had plundered to their original owners, keeping nothing of it for himself. Wow, how un-natural! But the Bible says he did this lest any should say he got his wealth through his own efforts rather than God’s supernatural hand of blessing.
The wealth of those four kings was a lottery size amount of “loot” and Abram was entitled to it. He would have been financially set up for life by just by holding onto it. He must have swallowed hard like I did when he let it all go. His question was the same as mine, what about his loss?
Then God gives Abram the answer. He tells him, “I am your shield and your exceeding great reward.” What you get for your reward, is God Himself and He calls Himself “your exceeding great reward.” Exceeding what? Everything and anything we might sacrifice in obedience to Him. He’s the compensation and what we lose is not worthy to be compared to His consolation.
He also happens to be the owner of all things. The truth is, it was all God’s to begin with, it always was, it always is. It was never fully Abram’s.
Whatever we “possess” is always just a stewardship of His ownership. Whatever we lose, our heavenly Father can restore abundantly to His trusting children, with interest. The answer to the question, “what about my loss?”, begins with “what’s most important to you?”
After this, Abram went on to become Abraham, the Father of many nations. His trust in God was His financial security! The young ruler, in contrast, walked away, because he was enamored with the assets he was certain represented more financial security than the Christ he was speaking with.That’s financial insecurity.
I have not seen a dramatic dump of payback money to cover my big loss yet. However, I have seen God come through every time I have had a need so that I never lack. With that, I’m as rich as my Heavenly Father. That’s financial security.
Continued-Financial Security Part 2