Friday 25 October 2013

Jesus Challenge

Rather than worship wealth we are called to worship God with our wealth. Make a time this week to sit down with another believer (your spouse, your parents, another mature Christian, etc.) and review how you spend your money. Note the areas where you spend the most money and consider how this reflects who or what you worship.

Prayerfully consider and plan how you can be self-sacrificially generous with your finances. Once you have a plan put it into action straight away! Over the coming weeks help each other to be accountable to this plan and to be generous with your finances.

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Read: Ecclesiastes 6:1-7, Job 1:13-22

How would you respond if everything you have was taken away from you? Imagine it. You lose your job. Your house is destroyed. All your material possessions except the clothes on your back are taken with it. Your bank accounts are frozen. Your cars are impounded. Even your family turns their back on you. You are left alone and destitute, totally helpless.

How do you think you might respond? Would you sink into a deep pit of despair? Would you be angry at the world? Would you get angry at God even? How would you respond?

This situation is exactly what happened to Job. He lost everything in a single day. He lost all his possessions, all his wealth and all of his family except his wife. In a single, terrible day Job lost everything. How did he respond? Have a look at verse 21: "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."

Job did not respond with anger and hatred towards God. He did not fall into a deep pit of despair. Instead Job praised God. Job recognised that God can take away just as He can give and Job praised God for Him in everything.

Solomon sees this point as well in Ecclesiastes. He sees a man with wealth, possessions and honour and yet God takes it away from him and allows another person to enjoy them. He sees that even if a man has a hundred children (!!!) and lives a long time if he cannot enjoy what God has given him then even a stillborn child is better off than he is. What a striking picture!

Solomon recognises that just as God can give pleasure, satisfaction and happiness He can also take it away just as easily. It doesn't matter how much wealth, possessions and family we accumulate, God can give or take away the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from those things. Without Him those things are ultimately meaningless and do not provide happiness and satisfaction.

As Christians God does not promise us great wealth, perfect health, large families or popularity. In fact, Jesus has promised us trouble, toil, persecution, hatred and struggle. What a package deal! But we are promised something infinitely more valuable, something that can never be bought or acquired: relationship with God himself.

We can find true contentment, joy and satisfaction in God Himself. He is the only one who can provide such satisfaction and through Christ He provides it to us. Paul talks about this in Philippians 4:12-13, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, wether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Whether God chooses to give to us or to take away, whether we live in plenty or in want, whether we are respected or hated we can find contentment in Christ. No matter what your current circumstances find your true satisfaction in Christ. Nothing else can satisfy.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Praise God that He provides true contentment to His people through Christ. Pray that He would help you to rest in this true contentment. Pray that He would grow in your heart a deep passion and desire to grow in relationship with Him, to serve Him and to share Him with others. Pray that today He would help you to be satisfied in Him no matter what.
• Pray for the youth of your church. Pray that God would encourage them as they mature into men and women. Pray that they would seek after Him always and that they would grow in their passion and desire to serve Him. Pray that God would raise up and encourage those who lead the youth and that through their ministry many more young people would come to know Christ and live for Him

My Additional Prayer Points

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Discussion Questions for families and groups

Read Job chapters 1, 2 and 42.

1. What can we learn about God from this account?
2. What can we learn about being content from this account?
3. How should what we learn from this account change the way that we live now?