More on Margin

While on the treadmill last night, I read more of the book Margin that I mentioned yesterday. The author, Richard Swenson, is a medical doctor who was on the fast track of life until God woke him up to the insanity of his life. He decided to do research on what happens to a life that is on overload. Out of it came this wonderful book that I highly recommend. I re-read much of the chapter on Margin in Finances. What a bone-shaking, eye-opening chapter.

To restore financial margin in our lives, where we're getting out of debt and not constantly living on the edge money-wise, the Doctor offers several "prescriptions." One of them is to begin travelling in the direction that our Father is pointing us to. The issue for followers of Jesus is that if we want to have financial margin in our lives we must settle the matter of lordship. Do I seek financial peace and getting out of debt in order to be more comfortable and financially secure? Or is my motive to honor my Lord Jesus?

I thought and prayed about this for several minutes as my workout wound down. Why do I want to pay off our house early? What is my motivation for putting money away for retirement? And should I be plowing a lot of that money into the kingdom of God (supporting more missionaries, giving more money away to the poor) now, rather than wait until I feel financially secure?

I have a friend that is always helping the poor and buying food and other things for those in need. When I commended him for his generosity, he told me in essence, "The Lord gives me this money so I can give it to others."

I'm just wondering...am I reluctant to give sacrificially and not save much because I don't trust the Lord to provide? I need Jesus to remind me each day that I cannot serve God and money. And when you and I give money away, in Swenson's words, "we not only neutralize its power over us, but we also bring it under the domain of the Kingdom of Light."

Jim