the cure for anxiety…

there was this story of a couple who were getting a divorce.  the man was a ceo of a large communications company and his net worth was five billion dollars.  he was saying i don’t want to go through all the legal hassles so he said to his wife, “i’ll just give you a billion dollars to make you go away.”  and she flatly refused.  she said “i won’t settle for anything less that 2.5 billion.”  what can you buy for 2.5 billion that you can’t buy for a billion?  maybe an aircraft carrier.

it just verifies the words of proverbs 27.20 (ncv), people will never stop dying and being destroyed and they will never stop wanting more than they have. 

in many ways this simple phrase, give us this day our daily bread, in the modal prayer of JESUS, is the antidote for materialism.  it’s the cure for the anxiety of trying to keep up with everybody else around you.  it’s the medicine i need to keep me from lusting after the things of this world that really aren’t about my needs.  they’re really just about my wants. 

this whole prayer, the LORD’s prayer is about us saying to GOD, i recognize YOU as the source of providing for my needs.  and i’m here to declare my dependence upon YOU because YOU are a loving father and YOU’ll give me what i need today and YOU’ll meet my need.  but LORD help me to be content with what YOU give me.  help me to be content that YOU meet my needs.

in 1 timothy 6.6 (msg), paul says a devout life does bring wealth but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before GOD.  since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet that’s enough.

he says if you can say in this life i know GOD.  i am HIS child.  i have a relationship with HIM and i’ve got shoes on my feet and bread on my table and a roof over my head then you are rich.  and he says that is enough.  that is enough.

just a thought from the front porch… 

one thing that will work when you can’t change something…

now there’s only one thing that will work when you can’t change something and that is this – acceptance.  i must accept GOD’s will in my life.  YOUr kingdom come, YOUr will be done.

now understand that not everything that happens in you life is GOD’s will.  i’m not saying that.  but you say,  “GOD, i want YOUr will in my life when there’s things out of my control and i can’t change them.”

now the apostle paul understood this.  in philippians 4.11 (ncv) he says this, i’ve learned to be satisfied with the things that i have and with everything that happens. 

how many of you can say, i’ve learned to be satisfied with everything that happens?  i couldn’t raise my hand on that one.  paul is saying, “i have learned to be content, to be satisfied with the things i have and everything that happens.”

verses 12 & 13 (ncv), i know how to live when i am poor and i know how to live when i have plenty.  i have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens… i can do all things through CHRIST because HE gives me strength.

notice the amazing thing about this verse, paul wrote it when he was in prison.  he’s in rome, chained to a guard in a dungeon and he’s saying, i’ve learned how to be happy no matter what’s going on in my life.  he couldn’t change his circumstance but he said i’ve learned to be content. 

just a thought from the front porch…

what is a right use?..

there is also a right use for wealth.  one is right accumulation and it is the principle that the bible says that we are to save money faithfully.  proverbs 21.20 (niv), the wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.

proverbs 30.24 (niv), consider the ant how it stores up in the winter. 

JESUS told a number of parables and over half of them dealt with money.  HE talked more about money than HE did about heaven and hell.  HE talks about investment, how the wise man invested his money and the foolish man didn’t invest his money.  the master came back and said “you’re wicked.”  it’s wicked not to make our money work for us.  when we save our money we get our money to work for us rather than working for our money.  in order to develop the habit of saving you’ve got to do two things:

first you need to learn to live on a margin.  that means live on less than you make.

john d rockerfeller said many times, “save 10%, tithe 10%, live on 80%.”  obviously that worked for him.  he was a very wealthy and influential person.

i think the principle of margin also applies to our time.  one of the reasons we are late to things is because we plan to arrive on time. 

if you want to arrive on time you actually have to plan to arrive early.  leave on a margin so when all the unexpected things that are going to happen come up, you will arrive on time.

then you learn contentment.  you’ve got to learn contentment with what we have.  if you don’t learn contentment, you’ll spend all the money you have as soon as you get it.  one guy used to say, “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.”  today that guy is a millionaire.  one of the biggest enemies of contentment is advertising.  we see things and think, “how am i going to get along without that?”

just a thought from the front porch…

rich at any cost attitude…

if i want to reduce stress, i’ve got to patch that hole in my heart, the hole of greed. pride, i can do it all. envy, i can be it all. greed, i can have it all.

the bible does not say it’s wrong to be rich that you need to be poor. it talks instead about having an attitude of contentment whether you’re rich or poor. GOD wants to teach us in both times. but the bible, and particularly the book of proverbs, warns us greatly about this get rich at any cost attitude, about the love of money and what it does to our lives.

greed is an attitude that none of us want to admit to but it’s something that surrounds all of our lives so because of that we all have to deal with the influence and effects of materialism and greed in our lives.

there’s nothing wrong with growing your company or increasing your income. so how do you know if it’s greed? how do you know if it’s materialism? one test: if you think, “i have to have that to be happy,” that job, that increase, whatever. whenever you think about some thing – i have to have that to be happy, that’s when you cross the line over into greed.

the bible warns us greatly about this attitude. proverbs says in 23.4 (ncv), don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. be wise enough to control yourself. if that’s not blunt enough, proverbs 25.16 says it this way (ncv), if you find honey, don’t eat too much or it will make you throw up. that’s blunt! but that’s the truth! that’s what greed does to us. i can’t have it all.

now whatever victories, whatever achievements, whatever accomplishments you have in your life they haven’t happened because of the stress. they happened in spite of the stress. if you could let go of the stress just think of what could happen in your life, think of how GOD could use you!

i may be able to change my schedule and i may even be able to work on my words, but only GOD can change a heart. only GOD can patch these holes in our heart. stress happens when i carry a greater load than i was designed to bear. pride and envy and greed and attitudes like this are caused when i take on a greater load than i was designed for and inevitably there is stress that happens. i need a heart change.

the greatest stress, the greatest way we live outside of our design specifications is in genesis 1 & 2 in the bible. it says that you and i were designed to have a relationship with GOD. GOD made us to relate to HIM. of all of HIS creation, HE made us more than anything to have this relationship with HIM. if i live outside this relationship with HIM, i have great stress in my life.

i’ve got good news for you. GOD doesn’t want you to live that way. HE has an answer for this. JESUS, when HE came into the world, one of the things that HE said is in matthew 11.28 (ncv), come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads and i will give you rest. come to ME. talk to ME. trust in ME. not as some executive consultant for your life but as a new ceo in your life. trust in ME as the manager, the director, the leader of your life. and i will give you rest. you can count on that!!!

just a thought from the front porch…