Getting Where You Want to Go

Back in 2019, Lazarus Church was co-hosting an open mic night with a local coffee shop. We got to meet some amazing local musicians, enjoy some great food, and support a local business too! My parents were on their way to visit us that weekend and were going to meet us at the coffee shop. They had visited us once or twice before, driving from San Antonio to the Spring area, but this time they had to navigate rush hour traffic. 

An accident on the highway forced them into an unfamiliar route, and that was also the moment that their smartphone died. Mom called me on her cell phone -- a no data plan, talking and texting only machine -- and explained the situation. They were a little turned around. 

I asked them to describe the street they were on and any landmarks they had nearby, and set to work pulling up maps on my computer. We were going to figure this out! Like Q for James Bond, with my gadgets and some well placed information, I was going to save the day. 

My parents were at Riley Fuzzel and the overpass. I confidently told them that they were close! Take a right at the light, and they would be turning onto the street the coffee shop was on! 

I got a call back from Mom a few minutes later. Rather than finding themselves in a brightly lit populated shopping area, they had been forced to enter a toll road. 

I was confused until they mentioned the name of the road. At that moment I realized that there are actually a few places where Riley Fuzzle is near an overpass. The one I thought they were at was by Riley Fuzzle and Rayford. The place where they actually were was the intersection of Riley Fuzzle and Hardy Toll. 

Here’s the moral of the story:

If you don’t know where you are, you won’t know how to get to your destination. 

This applies to many areas of life, including finances. We believe that God gives us the things we need, including our job by which He provides our daily bread. God invites us to participate in His generosity by giving away a portion of what He has given us. 

If you don’t have a grasp of your current financial situation, generosity feels dangerous. 

You have no way of knowing if you can meet your goals for basic necessities, much less sacrificial giving, if you don’t know where your financial situation is. 

As we wrap up our series on The Generosity of God, I’d like to share a question we asked the people of Lazarus to ask when we did our Generosity Challenge a couple of years ago. The questions people were invited to consider were these:

1. How has God blessed me in the last year?

2. How might I be a blessing to others?

When you have a budget, you can keep track of how God has blessed you, and you’ll be in a better spot to answer the second question about how you might be a blessing to others. Don’t assume that you don’t need a budget. Financially well-off people can make poor money decisions that get masked because everything seems fine on the surface. 

Tsh Oxenrider writes that a budget is simply telling your money where to go. Putting our goals and dreams on paper can help us start moving toward them! But you won’t be able to get where you want to go unless you start by figuring out where you are now. 

Our budgeting should reflect our goals and values. If you need a place to start, check out this article on the “why?” behind budgeting, and this article on “how” to budget. After that, you can check out a version of the spreadsheet our family uses to budget here. 

Here’s the deal: God doesn’t need your money. In Psalm 50, God says that he doesn’t actually need the offerings people brought Him at the Temple because “the cattle on a thousand hills” are His. 

God doesn’t need your money; God does want your heart. 

Where we put our treasure reveals where our heart is (Matthew 6:21). God cares deeply for the state of our hearts, and He wants them to be captivated, not by earthly treasures that fade, but by Him. He wants us to take Him at His word and invest His gifts in the things He tells us will last. 

How has God blessed us? He has provided not only the gift of salvation for us through Jesus, He also gives us our daily bread. Take a moment to count the ways God has blessed you! 

How might I be a blessing to others? Invest in those treasures that last forever. When we trust Him with our finances, it gives us the opportunity to rely on Him more fully and to participate in His generosity by becoming a blessing to others. 

<>< Pastor Mark