I rarely meet people who would consider themselves tight-fisted. Most of us would like to think of ourselves as generous—even if the evidence suggests otherwise. But greed is like bad breath: the person with the problem is often the last one to know it. So we need some help revealing where our true loyalties lie.
A key way to do that is by asking diagnostic questions. Here are three that reveal what kingdom you are really living for:
1. What is “first” in your decisions?
The closest I have to a life verse is Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Before I left for college, that was the verse my dad gave to me to guide my future. “All these things,” he said, “That includes money. That includes your career. It includes your wife, if God gives you one. It includes your children. And all of that has got to come second.”
This question should be at the heart of every decision that every Christian makes: What does God want me to do? I know that sounds simple, but it’s surprising how often the opinion of God doesn’t even register as relevant information for many Christians.
Ask what God wants—for your money, your family, your career. And do just that. Always prioritize the kingdom of God, and God will supply all that you need.
2. Does God get the first and best of all you receive?
I recently noticed something in the story of Cain and Abel that has really rocked me. In Genesis 4, both Cain and Abel made offerings to God. But there was a key difference: Abel gave the “firstfruits” of his flock; Cain, in contrast, made an offering from the field after the crops had come in.
Abel, you see, gave the firstborn of his flock before knowing how many more animals there would be. He gave to God first, but that giving was a big risk. Cain, on the other hand, waited to see how much he had, and only then did he give. In other words, Abel gave God his first and best; Cain gave God out of his excess. And only Abel’s offering was pleasing to God.
Whatever you give your first and your best to reveals what is truly God in your life. It may not be the biggest line item on your budget. It may not be a gift that would make jaws drop. But we all give our first and best to something. It’s that part of our life that gets top priority. And that shows what we treasure most.
Imagine you suddenly got $1,000. Where would it go? Chances are you’d want to go in one of two directions with it. Either you think of new stuff you can get with it (the spenders), or you would want to stash it away (the savers). Neither response is wrong in itself, but both can grow out of proportion. For spenders, money too often assumes the role of their significance. They use it to enhance their image or their comfort. For savers, money assumes the role of trust. They use it to ensure that the future is going to be okay.
When we look to money as our significance or our trust, something’s gone wrong. Only God should be our significance and our trust. The problem isn’t money itself; it’s that money has kicked God off the throne as first and best.
3. Do you think of yourself as an owner or steward of your blessings?
There are two ways to live when it comes to our resources. We can see them as ours—to use as we please—or we can see them as God’s—to use as he pleases. When God blesses us richly, it’s not to increase our standard of living. It’s to increase our standard of giving.
We were meant to be channels of God’s blessing, but too many of us want to be reservoirs. God blessed us so that we would bless others. As Paul says, “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way” (2 Cor 9:10). What this means is that if you don’t give generously, you’re actually stealing. You are embezzling God’s money.
Think about how upset you would be if you made a huge donation to Feed The Children, then found out that 90% of the money went to the CEO (and not, you know, feeding the children). You’d be outraged, because that guy was stealing money that wasn’t meant for him. We are that CEO. Each person in the church is a “non-profit organization,” and God has made donations to us because he wants us to use them for his mission. If we sit on those donations or use them for our own luxury, we’re taking what doesn’t belong to us.
The irony of all this is that the more we cling to money as ours, the more it seems to slip away from us. As Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.” What you keep is all you’ll have—and even that you’ll lose eventually. But what you give, God multiplies.
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
