Many of us have experienced a frozen computer screen where nothing we do brings the system back to life. It stubbornly ceases from all activity, and the only fix is to reboot.
If you’re like me, you probably feel like we just went through a similar frustrating experience with the national economy. All we could do was watch helplessly as home values plummeted and bank balances shrank.
The Instability of Man’s Economy
Before this happened, we thought we were doing the right things with our money. Too late, we discovered that we were leading ourselves into a big mess. This unfortunate scenario is what often happens when we follow what I call “man’s economy.” We begin to listen to our excessive wants and desires, and getting what we want seems good at first. But eventually something in the system breaks and our monetary success “freezes.”
God’s Economy
If your finances have been frozen by man’s economy, I invite you to reboot your financial life by learning to follow God’s economy. There are three essential principles of God’s economy, which will keep you on the right track:
First, filter every financial decision through a desire to please your heavenly Father. This begins with a heart surrendered fully to Jesus Christ. Seek to know His wisdom and His purposes.
Second, recognize that you are a temporary manager of what God has entrusted to you. As such, your primary goal is to be faithful with God’s resources, not to acquire wealth for your own benefit.
Third, serve others by living generously. One of the greatest joys in God’s economy is to express His love to others through our generous giving. When these three principles are firmly in place, you will experience the freedom of fulfilling God’s purposes for your life, the strength to serve others in need and the ultimate reward of pleasing the Master of your finances.
Chuck Bentley is the CEO of Crown Financial Ministries and host of the national radio broadcast My MoneyLife.