Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the expectations being placed on you? Does it seem as if everyone is zooming past you at a frightening speed to get somewhere, yet folks find it difficult to pinpoint exactly where that somewhere is?
The vague ambitions of success or arrival in American society can leave most people feeling as if they are seriously lacking somehow. The gnawing idea that you should be doing more, earning more, owning more can quickly send even the steadiest Christian reeling.
Is this of God? Has God ordained for His children to be inundated with stress, anxiety, and the bottomless covetousness which has become the modern American dream?
We follow a Savior which did not even own a home of his own, and yet most of our waking hours are spent on getting, getting, getting. And even for those who do not have a root of covetousness in their heart, American society and our current economy is so constructed that to even survive modestly in this country requires an almost obscene amount of work and focus on finances. So where is the balance?
What would God have us do? What should we know about Biblical abundance versus modern ideas of wealth and success?
I think the best way to navigate this tricky topic will be to look at different modern ideals of success one by one and answer them with scripture. Regardless of what the questions are nagging at our mind, the Word of God has an answer for us.
To reap the benefits of those answers, however, we must first be willing to look and second, we must be willing to accept what the answers are. Accepting is the hard part. As with all things, Christ’s ideas are radically different from ours. But for those who are willing to accept the answers, there is a revolutionary new way to live and think about your place in society, and your purpose on earth.
Without a “Good” Education, You Are Nothing
It would appear that the modern ideals of success start gnawing at us at a pretty young age. Parents begin stressing over their children’s education at a very young age. That stress gets translated right to the child.
As kids move through school the pressure to achieve becomes greater. Those who have the resources and support system to navigate through modern educational systems will get pushed harder and harder to achieve so that they can ultimately win the grand prize of acceptance into a reputable college.
The children who do not have the resources or support to navigate the maze of the modern education system will be marginalized, discouraged that they are not “college bound” and eventually settle for what they can get, starting out their young adult lives already feeling like a failure.
While the children deal with the psychological and emotional stresses, pressures, and disappointments of the educational systems, the parents feel the press to work harder and longer, to save more and more toward paying for the college education which they are pressing their children to qualify for.
Our mainstream brainwashing has told us that unless it is a name brand school with a huge price tag it will not provide “success” for our child. So, we must work longer, save more to make that happen. For many families this results in the sad reality that during the school years children and parents see little of one another.
The handful of hours they see each other in the evening or on the weekend has become a perfectly acceptable norm.
What does God have to say about all of this? Matthew 6:33-34 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
When a modern American reads those words in relation to education, college preparation and saving, I would imagine the first thought to pop in their head is, “Well, you have to use some common sense. You must prepare for the future.”
Preparing for the future is one thing but buying into the lie that the only way you or your child can be successful is to attend obscenely overpriced four-year colleges is another. Satan wants you to fixate on one mainstream path. It doesn’t matter if you can afford that path reasonably.
It doesn’t even matter if a four-year degree will logically take your child toward the career they are naturally wired for. Satan wants to distract you with anything that will get your time and attention off your relationship with God and your relationship with your family. “But I am working for my family,” you might argue. Yes, but is it what they really need, or are you working at attaining a mainstream mirage?
The truth is that there are many, many career paths, many of which do not require the type of education that American’s are obsessed with. There are many kids who are wired for blue collar jobs that only require some affordable post-secondary trade instruction.
The truth is even kids who are hoping to pursue a career that does require a four-year degree can get that degree for a fraction of the cost at a smaller school.
God’s truth is that our value is not wrapped up in our degree or our career. Our children’s value is not wrapped up in their report card, or what college they get accepted to. These things do not even register on God’s radar of value. God values the heart. God values character.
A successful child is a child that has a heart for God. A child with character. You want your child to be successful? They do not need a huge college fund, they need time with their parents. They need instruction in the word of God. They need a peaceful childhood with plenty of family time.
If you can afford to send your child to a costly school, and that education will actually aid them in the career path they have chosen, and God has given you peace, there is no sin in that. But to spend your children’s childhood pressuring them and barely spending any time with them so that one day in the future they can attend a school you can’t afford to pursue a degree they may not even want, is insanity. “Take therefore no thought for the morrow.”
Neighborhood Norms
Another trick that the world’s system has lured us into is the blind acceptance of neighborhood norms. When most young adults are choosing their first home, they do not seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in order to learn what type of house they should purchase.
Normally, they speak with a real estate agent instead. This real estate agent will ask them questions like how much they can afford, which, by the way, will be established by a bank, not the Holy Spirit. And the amount will be set at the very limit of what a person or a couple can afford.
The amount will not be set far below their means, but rather stretched right to the limit of their means. The real estate agent will ask them what area of the town they prefer, what type of neighborhood.
Sadly, most young people rarely take these questions to the Holy Spirit, even though God already knows exactly the house that He wants you in, and He can communicate this to you through the Holy Spirit.
But like with all problems with the Holy Spirit, Christians never give him the quiet moment necessary so that he can speak and lead. So, to the real estate agent they go. This real estate agent will then lead the person or the couple to houses that fit their “needs” in an area they desire.
Here is the problem with neighborhoods; the houses are all built to a standard. Whose standard? God’s standard? Well, no because God has different plans for different people. The standards of these houses are very similar, and the standard is not based on what others can afford reasonably, but rather it is based on the contractors who built the houses making the biggest profit which is allowed by law in their industry.
So, the couple or the person view the houses. Even if the Holy Spirit begins to tug at their heart implying that they cannot afford such a house, the common-sense answer is, “Well, these are the only kinds of houses in this neighborhood. They all cost this much.”
Neighborhood norms often determine what types of homes we buy not the leading of the Holy Spirit, not Godly wisdom concerning what we can afford well below our means. What does God say about this? Matthew 6 again has wisdom for us. 24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Having an expensive home is not a sin, if you can afford it without becoming a servant to your mortgage or rent payment. Mammon was actually defined by medieval writers as the demon of covetousness.
What is covetousness? Covetousness is often defined as grasping after things God does not intend for you to have, like a child gripping and yanking at a toy that does not belong to him. So how are we to know what God want for us? Give the Holy Spirit a chance to lead you.
Listened to the still small voice. God actually will guide you in the most mundane, day to day, practical decision making through the leading of the Holy Spirit if you take a minute to listen.
Day-to-Day Needs
So often we get caught up in the mainstream of the society we live in. Obviously, there is no escaping the society we live in until we are moved to our new home, but for now here we are. The world’s system is powered by one relentless thing, and that is greed. Everything is geared toward enticing us to spend more and more money.
Every type of digital entertainment is flooded with advertisements, the entertainment itself is constructed to constantly be presenting to us an extravagant, indulgent lifestyle that is supposed to be considered the norm. But what should our norm really be? How can we find it? If we look to the world to help us establish what kind of lifestyle we should be living, then we will quickly become servants to mammon.
The average person can only make the normal American lifestyle a reality by working unhealthy amounts of time and devoting most of their time and energy to earning money. Is this what God intended for us?
Again, our answers are found in Matthew 6. Mathew 6:25-32:
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
If you take some time to really read these verses with an open mind, and with a heart listening for the Holy Spirit’s leading, you will see just how revolutionary these ideas are. We spend a lot of time worrying, planning, and working for things which Jesus Himself said we should not even be thinking about that much. Things that we should just leave for God to provide for us.
True Godly abundance doesn’t mean that you do nothing to provide for yourself. Even the Apostle Paul worked as a tent maker a time or two. So, what does true Godly abundance look like?
Godly Abundance
Godly abundance doesn’t necessarily mean you are living in the woods with no worldly possessions communing with God 24/7. Godly abundance is a state of being in God’s will, working the career God intended for you, owning the things God intended for you to own, living in the house God intended for you to live in, having your needs met and every once in a while our good God will even throw in some of our wants as well.
How is this attained? It certainly isn’t attained by following the mainstream in their obsessive quest for more and more and more. Godly abundance will look different for every individual Christian, because God has a different plan in mind for each of us. This is why the educational system can’t define it for us, and the advertisers can’t offer it to us, and the real estate agent can’t sell it to us because it will be different for everyone.
To find God’s ideal abundance for you, you must take time, on a daily basis, to be still and quiet. You must make the effort to listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. He is willing and ready to lead you in even the most mundane tasks. You want to save money on groceries?
Get still and quiet before you make your grocery list. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your grocery list. God cares about your grocery list as much as He cares about the house you are going to buy or the college you should send your kid to.
Christians avoid this because deep down our faith is weak. Our faith is only pew strong. This means that our faith is limited to the time we are sitting in our pew at church. Once we are out in the “real world” we fear that God and the Holy Spirit can’t help us survive our modern society.
We may not vocalize this, we may not have even allowed our selves to think this, but our actions tell the truth. If we continually keep seeking our guidance from the world concerning our worth, our education, our living arrangements, the day to day needs of our family, then in action we are placing our faith in this world’s system, not in God.
When we place our faith in God in practical, everyday ways, we will find that the stress we have experienced for years concerning all our efforts to be successful, starts to melt away.
In its place we find peace. Just like the sparrows and lilies of Matthew 6, we can operate in a state of peace and joy knowing that our heavenly Father will take care of us, lead us to make the choices that we need to make, guide us in the right purchases, instruct in which ways to save and when and for what purpose.
Godly abundance doesn’t mean we never think about money or the future at all, but it does mean that we allow God to lead these topics.
Rather than stressing and exhausting ourselves with unnecessary burdens, we can simply follow God’s lead, knowing that He will not lead us wrong. We will find stress being replaced with peace, and that is the true definition of Biblical abundance.