Every morning I get up early to spend time praying, reading my Bible and journaling. I always choose a verse I read to journal on. Sometimes a verse will jump out while I’m reading and I’ll know that is the one and other times I just have to pick something. The most amazing thing about this process is what comes out. When I start I usually have no idea what is going to come out but God speaks to me so personally through the journaling. Often I get done and say, “Wow! God I had no idea this was in me or that you were speaking this to me.” This morning was one of those times. Incidentally, most of what I write here comes from my journal.
This morning I began reading Hosea. There wasn’t a particular verse that really jumped out so I choose to journal on Hosea 1:2 -
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredome by foresaking the Lord.”
Why would God ask a man to do such a thing? God knows the heartbreak this will cause Hosea. It is the same heartbreak he feels over his people whoreing themselves after other idols. So why would he cause a righteous man like Hosea to go through the same pain?
God understands us better than we understand ourselves. We have a hard time understanding what we can’t see. We have a hard time understanding what we haven’t felt. So God sometimes asks us to go through something difficult in order that we understand his heart. His heart is for us – that we might be intimately connected to him so he can poor out his blessing on us. I don’t mean monetary or physical blessing. We can see that being connected to God sometimes means suffering for him. But connection to God brings about a spiritual blessing in the form of joy no matter our circumstances. Yet we remain unfaithful.
Today we chase our own ambitions. We seek to satisfy all our desires. We are so easily fooled.
The iPhone 3Gs came out this week. I have wanted an iPhone for a long time and I know a lot of people who have just upgraded to the 3Gs. Yesterday I spent some time looking at them online. I have the money right now so I could afford to spend the $400 and get this wonderful piece of technology. I’ve been really thinking about it – trying to come up with ways to justify it. Then I read about Hosea and Gomer. I read how God’s heart is broken by his people coming to him and then whoring themselves out to other idols. And as I wrote in my journal God spoke loud and clear to me saying, “Don’t whore yourself out to the latest expensive gadget when I’m calling you to something more.”
And I wondered what God would have done with the money if all the Christians I know, who bought the iPhone 3Gs, would have given it to him instead of giving it to Apple? And what would God do with the extra $30+ a month they are going to pay for the iPhone plan for the next however many years? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you are a bad Christian if you have an iPhone. God does bless us with material possessions. I’m simply asking the question I have to ask myself, if I spend this money am I being the best steward of God’s money? Is there a child I could save with my $400? Are there people dieing without hearing the gospel because the money needed to send the missionary has just been spent on an iPhone?
These are important questions so my prayer today is this: God help me to always be a wise steward of your money. Amen.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
So who did you give the money to?
Bernard, Thanks for asking. Sorry for the slow reply, I’m a little behind on the blog right now. There are two answers to your question. One is that I have my first baby on the way and so spending $400 on anything right now is not being a good steward. So I certainly didn’t buy the iPhone just to be a good steward. The second answer is that I was inspired to give after going through that devotion and journaling exercise. When I wrote this I had just finished reading the book “Revolution in World Missions” by K.P. Yohannan who is the founder of Gospel for Asia. It is a great book that I would recommend. Because of that book I decided to start supporting their ministry so that is where I sent the money. You can check out their website at gfa.org.