My church is in the midst of a three week sermon series called 'Anchor.'
We are looking at ways we Christians respond to difficult financial struggles.
We remind ourselves that that anchoring our lives in Christ frees us from many of the financial worries that are plaguing the world - not because we don't have these worries, but because we believe in Jesus who asks us to hand them over to him. We do this by taking a hard look at what our money means to us, and breaking it down, as Mark Allan Powell does in his excellent book 'Giving to God,' into three areas. We remind ourselves that we use our possessions as; an act of worship, an expression of our faith, and as a spiritual discipline.

Last week we recounted primitive Old Testament worship, vestiges of which we still hold to today, that depicted the acts of the faithful who brought to the Lord from the 'first fruits' of their labors. The devoted then, as now, had a solid grasp on God's love and faithfulness toward them that had allowed them to prosper, to a degree, and accumulate crops, livestock, and other things. Thus, as an act of pure worship, these thankful souls literally brought crops and animals and other products unto the altar on a regular basis for no other reason than to simply say 'thanks.' They realized, as we do today, that 'all things come of thee O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.'

This week we look at how we free ourselves from financial worry when we use our possessions as expressions of our faith. One of the earliest words we learn as children is 'mine.' We use it with our toys our clothes, everything. And like most every other aspect of childhood, growing up means we leave this kind of thinking behind. It takes us many years to figure out that nothing, in fact, is 'mine.' We are all stewards of what has been given to us. Like someone once remarked to me in the restroom of a bar as he described the essential nature of beer: we just rent it.
Understanding ourselves, then, not as owners, but as renters, gives way to new understandings of how we approach possessions and charity, freeing us up to let the Landlord do the bulk of the worrying.

Next week we will look at our possessions as tools to bring us into deeper relationship with Christ. I believe money can bring us happiness -when we give it away -by helping us anchor our lives even more securely in the heart of Jesus. Charitable giving is one of Christianity's longest-standing Spiritual Disciplines. Behavioral psychologists have shown that people who successfully delay gratification as children grow up to be more successful in life than those who are less disciplined. We know that our discipline in eating or in physical exercise can yield terrific results, helping us become the kind of people we want to be. How much more, then, do exercises in almsgiving and charity make us more of the devoted followers of Christ we long to be?

'Cast all your cares upon me,' says our Lord, 'and I will take them.'
How we yearn to do and believe this! May our interest in using this
economic crisis as an opportunity to grow closer to Jesus yield great
dividends.


Recommended Reading:
Giving to God - Mark Allan Powell
A Simpler Way - Margaret Wheatly
Transforming Scripture - Frank Wade