Self Check Take One

Do you have health insurance? A 401k? Life insurance? Extra food for an emergency? A backup power generator? Comprehensive auto insurance? Go to the Doctor when you’re ill? Have an “emergency fund” in your budget?

Well, if you answered yes to any of the previous questions, then you must not trust God.

/sarcasm. jk, jk...but seriously.

Setting the Record Straight

Obviously I think a “yes” answer to most of those questions is perfectly fine and often desirable. (Specifics, amounts and times, are difficult to point out—not everything in life is black and white, but enough on that now since I’ll probably write an entry on the subject soon.)

This does bring up an interesting question. I have heard Jesus loving people legitimately question going to doctors, having retirement plans, preparing for natural disasters, etc.

“We should trust in God; He should be enough for us.” Extreme they may be…but if you hear a reasonably good case made, they certainly have some good points. How do we reconcile “trusting” in provision and people when we are to trust in God?

Self Check Take Two

I don’t recommend doing self checks all too often; whenever we focus on something it is magnified, so stay focused on Jesus not you! That said, self checks can be useful from time to time, and I have seen the following test help produce some good fruit in my life.

1. Think through one’s activities, interactions, and meditations.
2. Filter out some of the Christian lingo.
3. Is your life any different from your unregenerate neighbor’s (hypothetical neighbor)?

If we trust Jesus, at some level it should be conspicuous, true? We should shine as beacons of hope and truth. (Don’t believe me? Reference the Sermon on the Mount.)

Preparations and Insurance

Back to my topic at hand—trusting in God—consider the following parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 (pay special attention to verse 19):

13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

A quick and mostly correct reader would take away that we should not invest in or store up earthly treasure: don’t trust in earthly things but serve the Kingdom of God.

However easy it is to throw the baby out with the bath water, I advise against.

The rich man’s error was not so much storing up the crops and goods but was the fact that His trust was in those crops and goods. If our trust is in the Lord and our usage (including storing up) of wealth is for His glory and to obey Him, then we’re set.

Unless the Lord Guards the City

Psalm 127:1-2,
Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.

It is vain to labor if the Lord is not building, but that doesn’t mean to desist from labor: labor with the Lord!

It is vain to stay awake and watch if the Lord guards not, but this does not justify laziness: stay vigilant with Jesus empowering you and on your side!

The warning of the futility of labor and vigilance apart from God is not to dissuade us from such efforts but to give us proper perspective of our relationship to and need for God. Without God we can do nothing. That said, the proper response to this passage and idea is not to resign ourselves to apathy but to press forward and find God.

Responsibilities

Interestingly, my answer to all the questions in the first self check are “No.” The one exception being that I do go to the doctor in extreme circumstances. I have various reasons for such answers, and they all have to do with my current context—I’m financially limited and not the head of a family.

1 Tim 5:8, But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

We all have responsibilities, but particularly heads of households. And to carry out our responsibilities we ought to work hard AND use our heads.

Proverbs 13:16, Every prudent man acts with knowledge, But a fool lays open his folly.

This Proverb is saying that we should plan ahead. God has made us intelligent beings, let’s think! Other passages clearly advocate foresight as well—the section in Proverbs 6 concerning ants and sluggards jumps to mind. Like the previous idea regarding labor and vigilance, planning and thinking are not bad, but are they your hope? When your plans are for the house that God is building, and they are submitted to His Lordship, then, please, continue planning.

Wrapping This Together

• Trust Jesus above all else.
• Labor, but labor with God.
• Be vigilant, but in the grace of God.
• Think, plan, strategize for one purpose only: to worship Jesus as you walk in the responsibility which you’ve been given.