In one of my slideshow presentations I ask the question, “What on earth am I doing with all this wealth?” I think it is an imminently practical and important question that each of us needs to answer. And how we answer that question will be reflected by what we choose to do with our material possessions. Did God give us excess material possessions to increase our lifestyle or to increase our Kingdom impact? Did our Father provide us with surplus resources so we could be “rich in lifestyle” or so we could be “rich in good deeds” (I Timothy 6:18)?
I can think of no more powerful example of this statement, “You can live on less when you have more to live for,” than what is vividly demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus himself. II Corinthians 8:9 tells us, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
Jesus was the richest “man” in the universe and yet facing a divine purpose that collided with His exalted place in Heaven, He willingly “humbled Himself” and “made Himself nothing” (Philippians 2:6-8) and came to a dirty, sin-filled, remote planet to accomplish this divine purpose. He downsized from a throne in Heaven to a cross on Calvary.
Jesus was pursuing a purpose that required Him to radically reduce His preferred lifestyle in order to carry out a grand and noble purpose – the redemption of the entire human race.
I think none of us can escape the probing question that if Jesus, being rich, became poor for us so that we could be rich, what does He intend for us to do with those riches we have gained from His voluntary poverty? We need to soberly ponder this question.
For a man to choose to “live on less” it will require a radical reorientation of his life purpose that will reveal to him that there is indeed a greater
life purpose that will give him even “more to live for.”
“You can live on less when you have more to live for.” Maybe each of us ought to humbly reconsider our current perspective, our current priorities, and our current purpose. It may be that if we honestly assess these three areas of our lives and humbly attempt to align them with the perspective, priorities, and purpose of Christ, we might just find to our surprise that we will be glad to “live on less” because in so doing we have found “more to live for” – much more.
Call to Action:
As men and women of Issachar, we should all be challenged to:
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Broaden our perspective by recognizing that there are still 4,000 languages without the Scriptures, 3,000 people groups without a missionary, over 1 million villages without a single church and 3.5 billion Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Secularists without Christ,
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Sharpen our priorities to include Kingdom investments that Extend the reach of the Church to those who have never heard, recognizing that 99.7% of our evangelical giving goes to build and maintain the existing Church, and only .3% goes to fund work where the church is Not, and
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Take to heart our Lord’s final command, and make as part of our purpose and calling to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
Praying that each of us as marketplace and ministry leaders will make our lives count for ZERO!”
Written by Jay Link
