Proverbs 3:9-12
1. Do not separate the financial and the spiritual in your life.
Secular and Sacred: What God has joined together let no one separate.
How do I do something great and spiritual with something (money) that seems so earthly and carnal?
Read closely: the text refers to “your wealth“? Where did you get it? How long do you think you will keep it?
A human life puts a certain “world” of time, money, opportunities talents, and relationships into orbit. Keep God at the center of the universe.
This sentence is exactly what governed the Old Testament teaching regarding the tithe. Like training wheels on a bike, giving back to God a tenth of everything had a way of reminding the heart where it all came from and where it is all going. In this way, we can put money and material goods to our advantage, as a training for what our true priorities are.
2. God loves you because he loves you—not because of what you produce.
Because God’s favor in the gospel was not gained by your merit or good works, it by definition cannot be lost by you if you fail to keep up!
3. Thank God for investing in you with his discipline. (Heb. 12:6-11)
-Verse 11 does not say Love pain! Despise comfort!
-Instead, the command takes a negative approach: do not let this be your attitude when discipline comes.
-The bad responses are both active and passive: anger and despair.
-Verse 12 connects the wrong attitude to identity. (Jn 1:12-13; 1 Jn 3:1)
In ourselves, in our flesh, identity is a difficult, uncomfortable, often defeating topic. In Christ identity is ‘good news’!
