God’s Economy
The idea of God’s economy is a concept that goes against what society teaches us. This term describes how believers should act both to one another and to the community as a whole. We are called to be hilariously generous with our money, our possessions, our time, our service etc… Think about being a nonbeliever and watching a man/woman give his/her house, her car and her money all away while pursuing The Lord’s will for his/her life. Now think about a “nominal” believer seeing that. Both would be absolutely astounded because that radical abandon of worldly possessions is something most of us would run away from, but exactly the sort of thing the Lord will call us into. This idea of being radical in all we do is not a new one. Jesus sends out his disciples and commands them not to bring an extra change of clothes, food, water etc… and to allow the towns they visit to provide for them literally day by day.
2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. -Luke 9:2-4
Not that we will all be called to this level of abandon for the Kingdom of God, but we are all called to be ready. When you are called to drop your dream job and move your entire family to a new city or a new country, will you trust that God knows better than you or stay stagnant and say that you know better? When someone sins against you in the worst way imaginable, will you pray for the Spirit to put a forgiving heart in you towards them or allow your flesh to remain cold and angry? These are not easy questions for me or for you to answer so don’t feel bad if you honestly don’t know, or if you honestly know that you wouldn’t move, or wouldn’t forgive that someone, because the Spirit started a good work in us and we will, (through our broken attempt at obedience) look less and less like us and more and more like Jesus. And this is all thanks to Christ’s good work in us.
“But like… how do I get there? There’s a big gap between where my heart is now and where the Bible is calling me to be.”
Practically, we get to the point of being ready to abandon our comforts through fervent prayer, through reading the Word and by walking alongside people who are aiming to get to the same place. Prayer is the most powerful thing we can do because it is a time of talking to the Creator of the Universe and laying your heart bear for Him to work on and change. Second, when we read the Word, we see how the early church handled this call, and we are reminded of the goodness and holiness of Jesus. Third, we are called into community with fellow believers because God tells us that we mold one another. We need accountability and we need others to pray to the Lord on our behalf because we cannot do anything on our own. This is something that won’t happen over night, but that’s okay. As Christians, our whole life will be spent growing and changing our habits and our thoughts so don’t feel discouraged or panicked because no one is expected to be perfect, including Jesus. The Lord just wants us to hand him our struggles and our fears and trust that His plan is better for us than our plan can begin to be.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.-Psalm 139: 23-24As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.- Proverbs 27:17