As a postscript to Rick Warren’s Magnus Opus, The Purpose Driven Life, he suggests that money and purpose do mix.
Let’s take this one step further—it is difficult to fulfill a purpose without money as a component. Seldom is it an issue of too much, or too little, but it is a matter of how you use what you’ve been given.
How are your resources to be used?
Just like the other resources God provides—time, talent, energy, intelligence, wisdom—money is to be used to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives and for His honor and glory. Sounds good, but hard to do!
Definition of resources
There is a direct correlation between what we have, how we use it, and our faithfulness to God’s call on our lives.
The definition of resources is:
The availability of support materials, like money, and other assets, like intellectual property, used to function effectively and achieve a mission or goal.
There are two keys factors here:
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To have sufficient resources to support the cause, and
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To use those resources wisely to achieve the purpose
Each season or stage of life must be funded.
In other words, there must be enough money to breathe, live, and manage our affairs. As a young person, our funding source was our parents or guardians. In adulthood, it became our job or profession. During the last part of life, it is the savings we have accumulated to fund our future ministry. If we have not prepared, we are either totally dependent on the government, others, or we continue to work.
The purpose of money
The purpose of money is to support God’s plan for your life, and as a lever, to multiply that impact beyond what we can do without it. God’s call on our life is both universal and specific. Universally we are to represent Him to all we meet and specifically to fulfill our role in building His Kingdom.
Money and purpose do mix. It is always a good idea to review the purpose and to take inventory of all our resources. It is a good idea to evaluate how effective and efficient we are in managing, using, and leveraging them.
This raises the personal question, “How are you doing?”