I recently started reading a devotional on Financial Fitness. I was so curious at first because the devotional’s subject was not on what might be termed as straight up Christian themes such as love, salvation, grace, faith, forgiveness and so on. It was about finances, a somewhat touchy- feely subject for some.
And so I started it, got the first day’s reading and it was deep. I was drawn to reading ahead of the schedule but tried to control my pace.
The devotional is written by Pastor Rick Warren, author of the international bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life. I have since come to appreciate Pastor Rick’s teaching. I always look forward to listening to his Daily Hope broadcast on One Love Radio on 104.1 FM in Lusaka.
I decided to share Day 1 of the devotional and it’s titled “God’s Reward for Wise Money Management.” Enjoy and be blessed.
Pastor Rick wrote:
Money is the acid test of your faithfulness. God uses it more than any other thing in your life to test your faith. Why? Because it’s the thing we have the hardest time with.
Look at the rewards that God gives for wise money management: “[The] Master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21 NIV)
The law of compensation is this: God will reward you for good money management. There are three steps to this reward based on Matthew 25:21: affirmation, promotion, and celebration.
God affirms you by saying, “Good job! I was testing you to see if you could be trusted with what I gave you, and you passed the test. Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The second step is promotion. As you show faithfulness with a few things, God will give you greater responsibility.
And, as you show your responsibility, God will celebrate with you. You will share in God’s happiness!
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
Notice he doesn’t say you should not serve God and money. He says you can’t. It’s impossible. Nobody can serve two masters. So you’re going to have to decide what will be number one in your life, God or making money.
Money is a terrific servant, but it is a terrible master. When it masters you, you’re always under stress. You’re always worried. You’re always uptight about it. When you are the master of your money, when it is your servant, it serves you. When money works for you instead of you working for your money, then you have peace.
Listen to audio teachings from Pastor Rick >>
By Rick Warren (2004). From Financial Fitness Devotional, available on YouVersion http://bible.com/r/N1
Be Awesome! 