What better way to reinforce what you are reading than to write about it. I think it'll help cement in my own mind what resolutions we keep coming back to by continuing to put them on down on "paper". So, at least for a short time, I'm going to do a little chapter review of Barry Cameron's book as we read it together as a family. If there is someone out there who wants to read it, but can't get their hands on it, this will be the "Cole's Notes" of the book, The ABC's of Financial Success.
Chapter 1 - Attitude
I'm very glad that Cameron uses a lot of Scripture throughout his book. He begins with 1 Chronicles 29:10-14 where David is praising God, "Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things....Everything comes from you and we have given you only what comes from your hand." That is step one - acknowledging nothing is our own. It is all God's.
He then goes into describing some lies we believe that sound a lot like truth. Satan is behind them all. The first one is "All the church talks about is money." This is not true. In fact, he says, the church doesn't talk enough about money making Christians some of the worst money managers out there. Because Satan has twisted the truth and makes us think the church is always talking about money, we instantly get offended when the topic comes up. Once we are offended, we tune out. Perfect. Now we can't listen to the truths we need to hear about money! Satan wins. We lose. What can we do? We have to change our attitude towards money in the very face of the devil and beg to hear what Scripture says about money and how to get out of debt. Our churches need to have people out of debt, not sitting there offended about sermons on money.
Lie #2 - Money and Things Can Satisfy Me
Most of us agree that this is a lie. We know things can't satisfy, but then, we turn around and go out and buy something that will make us happy. This means we really truly believe the lie. If we didn't believe it, we would change all our spending habits, but we don't. Awful.
Lie #3 - It's My Money and I Do Whatever I Want With It.
The truth? It's all God's money. "The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." Ps.24:1 We are simply managers of God's things. We must be faithful managers.
Now, onto some truths that sound like lies....
Truth #1 - God is the one who determines how much money I have.
Deut. 8:17-18, "Moses says, 'You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.'" We like to take the credit for any money we make, but it is entirely up to God to bless the work of our hands, so we really can't take any credit for it. We must put God first and acknowledge Him and His sovereignty in our lives.
Truth #2 - God has the power to shut down my company, my business,and dry up my source of income without a moment's notice.
We all know this to be true. At any moment, life can change and we can be out of work. He gave the example of Nebuchadnezzar who was walking around taking all the credit for how great he was, looking at all he had accomplished...things were going just great. Next thing your know he's out in the fields eating grass with the wild animals and was out of his mind for 7 years. Not a pretty picture.
We can share a personal story very similar to that. When Renaissance Man was building our house, he found himself down in the basement one afternoon where he'd been going up and down ladders doing wiring, like a young man, feeling quite cocky at all that he had built. He says he remembers feeling and thinking very "Nebuchadnezzar-like" that it was quite something when he looked around at the house "he" had built. He was feeling very proud of himself as it was quite the house. The next thing you know, he took a step forward and suddenly his back went out - completely out of the blue. He couldn't walk another step and had to crawl to the upstairs where I found him on the couch later. Within a day or two, he got the worst case of strep throat he's ever had, high fevers and intense pain. He thought he was going to die! I couldn't lift him - he couldn't go anywhere for two weeks. As he lay on the couch, it occurred to him God was disciplining him. He had not acknowledged God. It was nothing RM had done to build the house. The only reason he was able to do anything at all was entirely because of God's gifting him with the abilities he has been given. Everytime since whenever we think how great we are for whatever thing we are thinking about, we instantly go back to that time and get on our faces, thanking God for His goodness to us, for humbling us, for giving us everything we have, including any talents or possessions. We never want to go back to that time of disciplining. It was a hard lesson for RM to learn and he learned it! It is proof that God really can shut you down whenever He feels like it and He doesn't have to give any warning.
Last truth #3 - Giving is the only way out of my financial problems.
Sounds strange, but it's true. We cannot outgive God. Giving when we've been in debt has seemed the oddest thing, but we continue to do it. It makes no sense, but work keeps coming in, out of the blue, when we least expect it. So many verses on this one - "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." 2 Cor. 9:6 It always comes down to really trusting God - do we believe our money is His or ours? We would behave differently if we thought it was all His. If we hold on to our money tightly, God cannot and will not bless that.
There's a bit more to the chapter, but the crew is up - gotta run!
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