“We flourish when our lives are oriented to the life of God.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 28, 2024
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops. Proverbs 3:9, NIV
Whenever I’ve heard a sermon on a passage like Proverbs 3:9, “Honor the LORD with your wealth,” it usually is reduced to mean nothing more than “Give your money to the church!” And while this may be an act of faithfulness with the wealth we’ve been given, it sometimes fails to paint a broader picture of why God is honored when we give.
Each of our individual lives is meant to be built upon the overarching story of love and redemption that God is singing over his creation. What is true in all times and all places should be reflected, in some small way, in our day-to-day lives. And when I give money to a church or ministry, or volunteer my time for a worthy cause, I need to see how that small act of faithfulness is nothing less than my participation in the way the Lord has designed the world to work.
Foundationally, we flourish when our lives are oriented to the life of God. Our aim in life should be to learn and discern what pleases the Lord, and then make decisions in keeping with that revelation. If God is pleased when we serve our neighbors, then acts of service should become a normative part of our daily routine. If gentleness and meekness are virtues that define the kingdom of heaven, then we should every morning pray that the Lord would grant us kind and tender hearts of compassion toward everyone we meet. And, to the topic at hand, if wealth is meant to be an agent of God’s blessing and abundant provision in the world, we should be quick to say “yes” and participate in this mission!
St. John Chrysostom, in a homily on Lazarus and the Rich Man, once said that “the rich are in possession of the goods of the poor.” Sit with that insight for a moment. According to St. John, whatever you have, great or small, earned by years of hard work or received through generational wealth, is entrusted to you to be given to the poor. Radical as this may sound, he is shining a light upon the dark corners of our hearts that are enslaved to greed or the need for comfort.
God gives wealth to people so his people can join him in the renewal of all things. We honor him with our wealth when we see the world through this lens. In truth, it is never “our wealth,” for as 1 Chronicles reminds us, everything comes from him, and we give him only what he gave us first (1 Chronicles 29:14). Seek to live out this truth today, and learn to honor the Lord with your wealth.
Prayer
Father, orient all of our lives, including our use of money, to the life of your kingdom, and show us how we can join you in the renewal of all things, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
What does it look like for you to honor the Lord with your wealth in this season of life?
Related Reading
1 Chronicles 29:14; Malachi 3:10; 2 Corinthians 9:7
Worship Resource
Kalley Heiligenthal: Ever Be
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