#68 IDENTITY IN FINANCES   

Debt Controls Our Past, Present, and Future

 

 

Many of our financial moves are based upon our lack of trust in God, the Father, having sovereign control over our past, present, and future. In fact, debt is rooted in the fear that if we don't control our present, then our future will become gainfully out of control. Fear of the future causes people to make rash decisions, which oftentimes require years of slavery. Whether we are spenders, hoarders, or both - fear is certainly one of the most expensive choices in the entire universe.

 

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that'" (James 4:13-15).

 

My experience is that most men live and breathe this deception. They get up each day ready to wage war with the marketplace, trying to make a profit. How many people do we know who are NOT caught up in this lie? Most men look at life in general through the eyeglasses of profit. Occasionally, I will meet someone who really and honestly believes that "if God wills it - I will do it." Part of this dynamic is because men are called by God to be providers. But when we step over into illusive self-confidence, we activate God's obligatory actions of showing us that we are only vapors, which are soon to vanish. The sooner we embrace the truth that we have no control over the past, present, and future, the closer we will be to peace.

 

 

The problem with the goal mentality of engaging in business to make a profit is that it gives the temporary illusion of independence from God's authority. Once a person starts living this illusive lie, his decisions begin to "shortchange" God's passionate desire to be his provider. God will allow the illusion to wear the person down, until his dream becomes a nightmare. God doesn't want His children to feel that they are in control of their own lives - or dare to think they can form their own version of authority! ALL authority that exists is because of God - for He is authority. The word "authority" means the "author who acts." If we take this meaning to be literal, and we should, anyone who makes up his own version of authority is committing the same sin Satan did right before...read more here

Dr. Stephen R. Phinney               PDF version:  click here