Today we continue the concept of living a life in this world, but using spiritual wisdom and guidance to help us find peace and contentment. Living stress free is not always realistic, but having spiritual guidance and boundaries makes life a lot easier because we have guidelines that can be tested and proven over and over again. In all my years, I cannot remember God letting me down if I just followed His simple guidelines.  Scripture reminds us that God is a big believer in the KISS principle and uses multiple examples of why we should live an uncomplicated life with a childlike focus on the basics. (Matthew 18:3, 19:14, Mark 10:15, Luke 18:16, etc.)

One of the most basic principles of living in the spirit is our call to generosity. While we live in a world that promotes “watching out for #1” and credits those whose greed has made them wealthy, we are called to look at wealth and riches with a different paradigm of thought. As part of the Kingdom of God, our riches rest in the eternal, protected “from moth, rust and thieves” (Matthew 6:19). We don’t have to worry about inflation, currency devaluation, stagflation or currency downturns because no one can take from us what has been given by God. We are even promised that if others steal from us we will be recompensed in eternity. If that doesn’t change your mindset, let’s consider some other concepts throughout the Scripture.

Jesus and those empowered to write the scriptures were pretty serious about financial issues and how we are to deal with them. Let’s put that concept into context. Jesus spoke about Heaven and Hell about 250 times. He spoke about faith, 500 times. He addressed prayer 500 times. However, he spoke about money and possessions over 2,300 times. It must have been really important if He spoke about it that many times. Christ wanted us to get a different mindset about things and value.

The key to developing this aspect of your spiritual life is developing an attitude of gratitude which we have mentioned in the past. That mentality will change the way you approach and handle your finances and what is important. Let me give you three examples that may help you get into the mental context of what I am trying to say:

1. You can enjoy many things or aspects of this world without owning them. Owning them only brings on responsibility and stress to protect and preserve them. Giving things away removes that stress and brings about a greater degree of freedom.
2. Purchase things that are useful, rather than for achieving status. Be a good steward of your resources and God will give you more to manage (Matthew 25:14 – 30)
3. Focus on God’s creation and the creator rather than what is created. This is simply a restatement of the 2^nd and 3^rd It helps us simplify and honor what is honorable. Both help you shape your priorities and how you can become a good steward with what you have, while you keep everything else in context.

We must renew our trust daily in God the way Christ did. He trusted that He would be provided for, so He didn’t worry about what God has promised those who love Him. It allowed Him to be generous to those around Him with whatever He had. We cannot forget that God owns it all. We cannot spend or use what He does not give us first. He has unlimited resources and we must NOT forget that.

Love Dad