Baby Step # 7 – Build Wealth and Give

We’ve worked hard and struggled to pay off all of our debts…

we’ve even paid off the house in Baby Step #6… 

What do we do now?

Build Wealth and Give!!!

It may sound counter-intuitive but giving is the best thing that you can do with the money that’s been entrusted to you. Notice that I didn’t say, “That you’ve Earned” or “That you’ve been Given. I said, has been ENTRUSTED TO YOU! 

It’s NOT really yours and it never has been. It feels like it’s ours and we think that we have done something to earn it so we feel like we have a right to use all of “our” money and possessions. We should be able to do whatever we want with “our” money!

The Game of Life

Have you ever played the GAME of LIFE?

You start out deciding if you are going to college or if you are going to get a job and start earning a living. If you get a job, the careers are limited and the salaries are generally lower. If you go to college, you immediately incur student loan debt but you have a greater variety of careers with typically better pay.

You spin the little wheel in the middle of the board and move your little car around the board. Land on the right square and you get married, land on another square and you have twins. Along with both of those joyous occasions are the financial impact these events have on your personal finances. You move around the board and buy a house. You also have the option to buy insurance for the house. Move a few more spaces and you pay taxes. You keep getting paid your salary and life keeps happening to you. Land on the wrong space and a storm damages your house… If you bought the insurance the storm doesn’t cost you anything… If you didn’t buy insurance you have to pay to have the house repaired.

Sometimes when you spin the little wheel in the middle of the board it comes off of the little peg that it’s spinning on and it needs to be reset. When that happens, you pay the person with the IT career to fix it. (I didn’t make that up… It’s really in there.)

You move around the board living life and when you get to the retirement home you are at the end of the Game of Life. You sell all of your assets, count up the cash and whoever has the most money wins!

But What Happens Next?

It all goes back in the box… and that’s what happens in the real GAME OF LIFE also. We all know that we can’t take it with us but we act like we can. In reality, someone else will drive “our” car, someone else will live in “our” house and someone else will use “our” money as they take their turn playing the Game of Life. That’s why I said, Entrusted To You earlier. We don’t really OWN anything… God is the owner and we are merely the managers of what he has entrusted us with. Since we are His managers, we are charged with using His money and possessions to do the most good.

Here is an alternative solution… Instead of leaving “our” money and possessions when we die, why not give them away before we go? Isn’t that what a good manager would do? Aren’t we abdicating our responsibility as managers if just leave all of the assets for someone else to to do something with?

Malachi 3:8 says, “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.” Tithes are the first ten percent and are allocated to the church where you worship. We’ll leave that one alone for now because it’s a post all by itself. How about the offerings? Tithe indicates a specific number but offerings are not value specific. Offerings are everything above the tithe. That can be a penny, a dollar, a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars or a bazillion dollars!!!

Have you ever encountered someone and just felt that feeling telling you that you should do something to help them out? If you didn’t do whatever that feeling was telling you to do… You just robbed God!

That’s the whole point of Baby Step #7… Build Wealth and Give! Broke people can’t step out and help when that feeling hits them. Broke people can’t pay a single mom’s rent for the next year so that she can just work one job and still have time for her kids. Broke people can’t pay the gas bill for the entire winter so that small children don’t have to go to bed with winter coats on just to stay warm and broke people don’t buy vans to pick up homeless and disenfranchised people living in half-way houses so that they can take them to church, buy their lunch and re-instill the dignity and value that God has placed on everyone of His children.

Here’s a young guy who didn’t rob God of twenty bucks…

http://youtu.be/VLSWZBmoMK0

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It all started with twenty bucks…

If you live in this country you are already wealthy…

What is God asking you to Give?

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