By Matthew R. Legere

 

Who Owns Your Money?

Yep, this is basic, but God owns everything.  While this phrase may not be foreign to the Christian community, we are familiar with this concept in word, but not in practice.  If we held this principle with the same importance that God desires, our lives – specifically related to finances – would look much different than they do today. 

 

The Bible’s first verse (Genesis 1:1) tells us God created everything, while John penned these words, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).

 

The idea of God being the Creator of all things is a core part of our Apostolic beliefs.  We recognize that God is the Master of everything and that He rules on the throne with majesty and glory.  As awesome as it is that He made the trees and breathed the breath of life into man, God has made this creation much more personal.

 

Two different Psalms record this: “From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb you have been my God” (Psalms 22:10, NIV); “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalms 139:13, NIV).

 

God personally had a hand in your becoming the person that you are today—your natural talents, your looks, your callings.  He formed you for His purpose specifically for the location and time period that you are today.  You are precious to the Lord.

 

So Difficult to Recognize God’s Ownership

The reason that we are so susceptible to this attack of Satan comes from our intrinsic desire to not want to surrender complete control of our lives to the Holy Ghost.  Men and women have historically always had difficulty with allowing God to have complete control.  Giving up control is a continuous process.  While an individual needs to surrender complete control to God to be filled with the Holy Ghost, that’s not where the surrender stops, it’s where it begins.

 

This human tendency to resist surrender was evident as early as in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ended up disobeying the Lord and usurping His authority in the process.  By choosing to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were taking control of their lives from God (or, in another phrase, being rebellious).  

 

A financial example is the story of Annanias and Sapphira (Acts 5).  They committed to give a certain amount of money based on the sale of some land that they owned.  That sounds rather generous to me.  (On a side note, how many of us would sell our homes, especially after the recent housing boom, and commit to give our entire profits to the work of the Lord?  While the Jeopardy theme song plays in the background, I’ll help you out with the answer: not many!) 

 

When it came time to give the money to the leaders of the church, they made a horrible decision to lie and keep back a part of the money.  Peter responded decisively, “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” (Acts 5:3).

 

Maybe they were scared by the realities of their decision or perhaps their straw roof needed to be replaced that month.  The fact is that they took back control of their finances contrary to what they, being led by the Holy Ghost, had committed to give.  It resulted in their untimely deaths!  Instead of getting their own plaque in the church foyer, the only marks they left in the church foyer were chalk lines where their dead bodies lay.

 

So It Is with Us

Just as Satan was involved in getting Ananias and Sapphira to not handle their finances wisely, he is still, even today, trying to get us to rebel against God’s principles when it comes to handling our finances.  If the Lord desires for us to give of our finances and we commit to it, yet due to the realities of our current financial position, we make a decision to not do what the Lord has asked us to do, how are we not guilty of the same offense of Ananias and Sapphira?

 

We need to recognize that God owns our lives, our dreams, our future, and our finances—everything is in His hands.  This involves placing everything, including our checkbook, on the proverbial altar and asking God to control and direct it.  That’s scary, as God may not handle things how we want Him to.  It’s a cliché, yet true - it’s a matter of trusting God that He will allow all things to work together for our good. 

 

Next Week: Apostolics Bound in Financial Chains

 

 

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© 2006, Matthew R. Legere

 

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Matthew R. Legere, his wife Heidi, and his son Connor reside in Bristol, CT.   He is currently working full-time as a Senior Underwriter, attending online classes at Great Lakes University, and pursuing his local UPCI minister’s license.  He realizes that sleep will probably escape him until he reaches the Heavenly gates and that he’ll be told that there will be no sleeping there either.