Part 1: Money is important. We are called to provide for our families in material matters for things such as food, water, shelter, etc. Those material items are gained by the money that we make in this present world. We are also called to provide spiritual guidance for our children which is more important than the others. Our priorities must stay in line.
Part 2: When we have our priorities in line, sometimes problems may still arise. We may find ourselves lacking in the financial area; however, we still have to give our all to God. Even if our "all" is little, like that of the poor woman, we still have to freely give. God will bless us for our cheerful giving.
Now let us begin with a story that deals with 'Money Matters'.
2 Kings 4:1-7
[1] Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
[2] And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.
[3] Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
[4] And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
[5] So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.
[6] And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
[7] Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
[2] And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.
[3] Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
[4] And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
[5] So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.
[6] And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
[7] Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
So there was a woman who's husband had died and left them in a predicament. She was left with a debt, and I assume in order to pay off the debt, her children were being taken as slaves. She had nothing left but a little oil.
A lot of times we may find ourselves walking in the kitchen, rummaging through the pantry, saying "We have nothing in here!". When in reality, we have a lot. This woman literally had nothing but oil. What would we do if that was us? I can't imagine.
Our response should be to do the same that she did. She trusted in God. She obeyed God. She was blessed by God. God performed a miracle out of that little oil she had. Was it the oil that made the miracle? No. It was a little oil and a lot of faith. She ended up not only with enough oil to sell to pay her debt, but with some left over to live off of.
When you find yourself in a predicament and you don't see any hope- Call on the Lord. Trust Him. Obey Him.
1. Call on God. He wants us to need Him. Sometimes He takes away every other option available in order to bring us closer to Him.
--John 15:[7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
2. After you have called on Him for help, have faith and trust that He will answer your prayers. You may not get the answer you wanted, but His plans are better and thoughts are higher than ours.
--Hebrews 11:[6] But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
--Psalms 37:[5] Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
3. Whenever we ask God to do something, we must do our part also. Notice in the scriptures above it says "if ye abide in me and my words abide in you"... then He will answer our call. The next one is conditional also. We must have faith and diligently seek Him, then He will be a rewarder to us. The next one- we must commit our way and trust in Him, then He will bring it to pass. If you are obedient, He will keep His end of the promises. Sometimes, He may ask us to go to people or to do something out of our comfort zone. The woman in the passage above had to go ask her neighbors for their empty jars. That could be embarrassing, but she didn't hesitate. God told Jesus to go die on a cross for us, and He obeyed. Can we afford to do any less?
--1 Peter 4:[17] For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
We can't afford to depend on anything else but the Lord. People of today rely on the government aid, family members, stock market, loans...you name it. While none of those resources are necessarily wrong, we know that they will all fail us. God is the only resources we can depend on. He will never fail. He will always provide for our needs when realize that in the end, money doesn't matter so much. God matters.
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