Get rich quick! You can have the life of your dreams right now! No need to wait, just do this simple step and you’ll be rich beyond your wildest expectations.
Have you ever chased one of those schemes? Ever been a part of a pyramid scheme or thought if you sold enough widgets and gizmos you’d be set for life? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, I’d venture a guess that all of us have traveled down the road toward instant riches a time or two. If not in reality, then definitely in our minds. Who hasn’t thought about winning the Lottery or, as my wife and I are currently hoping, to win the Publishers Clearing House, $5,000/week for life.
However, haven’t you all heard stories or seen TV specials about people who have gotten rich quick and it basically destroyed their lives? Why do you think that is? If having more money would solve all of our problems, how can having a ton of it all of a sudden be so devastating?
Today’s proverb is where we find the answer. This is the first of many proverbs about money. Throughout this year we will learn more about how to deal with money as we go through the rest of this book. But today, we get the ground rules. Today we get the foundation for how to deal with money.
It’s a very simple principle, easy to explain and just as easy to understand. But for some reason, it’s incredibly difficult to live out. It’s difficulty level is high for the same reason we want to win the lottery and have lots of money. We want more money. That’s why it’s difficult. We want it and we want it now and we want a lot of it. So, when it comes to living out this proverb, it gets very challenging to set that aside.
However, if we can learn to Honor the Lord from our wealth and the first fruits of our crops. Wait a second, not very may of us have crops anymore. When was the last time you spent the spring months planning how you’d plant your crops for the summer? Did you spend all of September harvesting grain? Probably not. But, you do reap benefits of your labor, whatever it is that you do. And when you’re blessed with the fruits of your labor, the first response should be to honor God.
What does the word honor even mean? It means to give someone the rightful place of authority. It means that we recognize that all that we have is given to us by God anyway, so when we honor Him with it, we are giving him the place of authority with what is His.
Notice this translation uses the word “from” instead of “with.” I could be mistaken, but I think that’s to help teach the idea that God does give us the wealth we have to take care of our needs. And the idea is that from what He has given us we are to honor him with a part, the first part. Is there spiritual significance to giving God the first part? Yes. Lots of people write this off as not being that big of deal. And while I won’t make a big deal out of it, we are told to give from the first fruits. And like anything else we are told, we ought to do our best to live up to it.
Proverbs 3:9-10
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth
and from the first fruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled completely,
and your vats will overflow with new wine.
The question you probably have is, will I get rich doing this? Will my barns really be filled completely and will my vats overflow with new wine? I don’t know. What I do know is that if you begin to Honor the Lord out of your wealth, and out of the first fruits of your crops, you will begin be much more intentional about how you spend, save and give the wealth that you do have. And when you become more intentional about anything, you get better at doing it.
And yes, I do believe that God will bless your commitment to honor Him with your wealth. It may not be with riches and abundance like you have in mind. It might not add zeros to the end of your balance sheet. But you will be blessed. In what way? By making God the authority in your life instead of riches, your whole perspective will change. Life will be about the right things, and the thing that used to drive will become less and less important.
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