Here is some wise counsel I recently received from a fellow-Christian.
When building wealth God’s way, free from the love of money, never forget why you are doing it.
For instance, one of the things that is important to my wife and I is the ability to spend time with our children while they are growing up and to be there for them in the years that they need us the most.
Building wealth takes time, however. There is no way of getting around this. How silly would I be if I spent years of my life focusing on that goal only to find that my children have grown up without me… because I was too busy pursuing wealth so that I could spend time with them.
That would simply be the Love of Money dressed up as a Godly pursuit. I’ve said it before. Everybody faces Love of Money challenges; only the form varies… and this is my personal fight.
As I move from a mindset of Financial Struggle to one of Financial Freedom, it is very easy to lose sight of why I am doing this.
Building Wealth God’s Way
11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe His commands, his laws and His decrees that I am giving to you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, the thirsty waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of the hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 8:11-18
Deuteronomy 8 reminds us of the ultimate WHY with respect to building wealth God’s way. Everything we do should be for God first and foremost. I pray that God’s grace will carry me and that I keep fighting the good fight. That means:
- being available to my children in the now
- making time for God’s work in the now
- giving generously in the now
This doesn’t mean that I should abandon my goal of wealth creation. That would make me a bad steward of the talents and resources God has given me. It simply means that I should always remember why I am building wealth. It means living out my values in the now as if I have already achieved the objective – even while I am working towards that objective.