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…