Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 143

The Elements of a Patient Prayer Life

Tim Keller in his great book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God uses an illustration from O. Hallesby. In God’s providence, I was recently reading this passage from the book, and found it very helpful. Tim writes:

If we overstress submission, we become too passive. We will never pray with the remarkable force and arguments that we see in Abraham pressing God to save Sodom and Gomorrah, or Moses pleading with God for mercy for Israel and himself, or Habakkuk and Job questioning God’s actions in history.

However, if we overstress “importunity,” if we engage in petitionary prayer without a foundation of settled acceptance of God’s wisdom and sovereignty, we will become too angry when our prayers are not answered. In either case—we will stop praying patient, long-suffering, persistent yet nonhysterical prayers for our needs and concerns.

Hallesby likens prayer to mining as he knew it in Norway in the early twentieth century. Demolition to create mine shafts took two basic kinds of actions. There are long periods of time, he writes, “when the deep holes are being bored with great effort into the hard rock.” To bore the holes deeply enough into the most strategic spots for removing the main body of rock was work that took patience, steadiness, and a great deal of skill.

Once the holes were finished, however, the “shot” was inserted and connected to a fuse. “To light the fuse and fire the shot is not only easy but also very interesting ... One sees ‘results’ ... Shots resound, and pieces fly in every direction.” He concludes that while the more painstaking work requires both skill and patient strength of character, “anyone can light a fuse.”

This helpful illustration warns us against doing only “fuse-lighting” prayers, the kind that we soon drop if we do not get immediate results. If we believe both in the power of prayer and in the wisdom of God, we will have a patient prayer life of “hole-boring.” Mature believers know that handling the tedium is part of what makes for effective prayers.

Photo: Pixabay

Why Does Everyone Want to Be Happy?

Based on books I’ve read, sermons I’ve heard, and conversations I’ve had, it’s clear many Christians believe that humanity’s desire for happiness was birthed in the Fall and is part of the Curse. Hence, the desire to be happy is equated with the desire to sin.

But what if our desire for happiness was a gift designed by God before sin entered the world? If we believed this, how would it affect our lives, parenting, church, ministry, business, sports, entertainment, and our relationships with God? How would it affect our approach to sharing the Gospel?

Augustine asked rhetorically, “Is not a happy life the thing that all desire, and is there anyone who altogether desires it not? He added: “But where did they acquire the knowledge of it, that they so desire it? Where have they seen it, that they so love it?”  (The Confessions of St. Augustine).

God has written his law on our hearts (see Romans 2:15). There’s compelling evidence he’s also written on our hearts a powerful desire for happiness. In fact, this has been the consensus of theologians throughout church history. Since we inherited our sin nature from Adam, it’s likely we inherited from our Eden-dwelling ancestors a sense of their pre-Fall happiness. Why else do we long for something better than the only world we’ve ever lived in?

Before the Fall, Adam and Eve undoubtedly anticipated good food, which likely tasted even better than imagined. But after the Fall, the opposite became true. We anticipate more of food, work, relationships, and everything else than what we experience. We live in a darkened world, but our disappointments demonstrate we retain expectations and hopes of a brighter one.

Were we merely the product of natural selection and survival of the fittest, we’d have no grounds for believing any ancient happiness existed. But even those who’ve never been taught about the Fall and the Curse instinctively know something is seriously wrong with this world. We’re nostalgic for an Eden we’ve only seen hints of. These hints are trickles of water in our parched mouths, causing us to crave and search for rivers of pure, cold water.

Anglican bishop J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) wrote, “Happiness is what all mankind want to obtain—the desire for it is deeply planted in the human heart” (Happiness: The Secret of Happiness as Found in the Bible).

If this desire is “deeply planted” in our hearts, who planted it? If not God, who else? Satan? The devil isn’t happy and has no happiness to give.  He’s a liar and murderer, dispensing rat poison in colorful, happy-looking wrappers. He hates God and us, and his strategy is convincing us to look for happiness everywhere but in its only ultimate Source.  

Did Adam and Eve desire happiness before they sinned? Did they enjoy the food God provided because it tasted sweet? Did they sit in the sun because it felt warm and jump into the water because it felt refreshing? Was God pleased or displeased when they did? Our answers will dramatically affect the way we see both God and the world. If we believe God is happy, then it makes sense that part of being made in his image is having both the desire and capacity to for happiness.

Sadly, Christ-followers routinely say things like, “God doesn’t want you to be happy, God wants you to be holy.” But holiness and happiness are two sides of the same coin—we dare not pit them against each other. Not all attempts at holiness honor God any more than all attempts at happiness honor him. The Pharisees had a passionate desire to be holy on their own terms and for their own glory. Christ’s response? “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44). God wants us to seek true, Christ-centered happiness in him, while Satan wants us to seek false holiness with self-congratulatory pride.

Other Christians say, “God wants you blessed, not happy,” and “God is interested in your growth not your happiness.” Such statements may sound spiritual, but they’re not. 

Does the message that God doesn’t want us to be happy really promote what Scripture calls the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7)? Or does it actually obscure the Gospel?

What good father doesn’t want his children to be happy, i.e. to delight in good things? If we tell our churches and children that God doesn’t want them happy, what are we teaching them? That God isn’t a good Father? Should we be surprised when children raised with this message turn away from God, the Bible, and the church to seek from the world the happiness our Creator wired them to want? As Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Man is unable not to wish to be happy” (Summa Theologica).

By creating distance between the gospel and happiness, we send the unbiblical message that the Christian faith is dull and miserable. We should speak against sin but hold up Christ as the happiness everyone longs for. If we don’t, then we become partly responsible for the world’s tragic and widespread misperception that Christianity takes away happiness instead of bringing it.

Separating God from happiness and our longing for happiness undermines the attractiveness of God and the appeal of the Christian worldview. When we send the message “God doesn’t want you to be happy,” we might as well say, “God doesn’t want you to breathe.” When we say “Stop wanting to be happy,” it’s like saying, “Stop thirsting.”

People must breathe and drink and seek happiness because that’s how God made us. The only question is whether we will breathe clean air, drink pure water, and seek our happiness in Jesus. 

Photo: Unsplash

The Purity Principle, Reader Responses, and the Joyful Rewards of Sexual Purity

When Randy wrote his small book The Purity Principle, which explores the biblical foundation for purity, his prayer was that the principles and advice it contained could save many readers from disaster, setting them on a course for which they—and their families—would always be grateful.

Randy wrote:

Surveys indicate that the sexual morality of today’s Christians isn’t all that different from that of non-Christians. It’s often impossible to discern where the world ends and the church begins.

Our failure to follow the teachings of Scripture in this area undermines our ability to accomplish what God has called us to. Why? Because if we’re just like the world, we have nothing to offer it. An unholy world will never be won to Christ by an unholy church.

Why is sexual purity such an integral part of a rewarding life? Why is premarital and extramarital sex so toxic to joy? Why have so many tried and tried and tried... yet failed and failed and failed? How can we avoid the lures and snares that lock us into bondage and tear away the abundant life?

The Purity Principle sought to answer those difficult questions in a biblical, practical manner. Our ministry has been encouraged by the many positive responses we’ve received since the book was first published twelve years ago. Recently we received this review from a reader:

This is the most biblically based explanation of purity that I have read. Alcorn doesn’t skirt around the point, even if it’s a harsh one.  He knows that truth is truth, and that sin in the life of the Christian is a big deal.  There’s no skirting around or padding over its existence.  He goes straight to the Scriptures to explain not only why sexual sin is wrong, but why purity is right. Finally, the author backs up what he says.  He is aware of the incredible danger of sexual sin, and advocates doing all that it takes to remain pure (something we must all do).  This gives credit to what he says in his book, and reminds the reader that true freedom is found in Christ.

Another reader wrote:

This little treasure will forever be a great tool in my tool belt as a counselor. I have counseled a couple young men through the problem with purity and lust. Alcorn hits the heart and uses stories and analogies that will linger in your head and shake your heart. Both young men I have given this to have loved it. One of my counselees loved it so much he would tell me that he would approach the book with the thought, "What do you have to teach me today?" This book ministered to me as a teenager in high school when I struggled with lust and porn. It was a life changing and life shaping book then and it has stood the test of time now. A must have for anyone who is serious about putting lust, porn, and immorality to death.

We love this note from a young reader, and are encouraged to hear of a father taking an active, preemptive role in his son’s purity:

I am almost 12 and my dad is taking me through The Purity Principle. I just wanted to thank you sooooo much for writing that book. It has really helped me with that issue. And now whenever I am tempted I just remember your words which were “impurity is always stupid and purity is always smart.”

May we, Christ’s followers, honor God by living in sexual purity. As Randy stated in the book, “If we do, we’ll experience His blessing and rewards not only today, tomorrow, and ten years from now, but throughout eternity.”

 

Grateful for the Wait

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

—2 Peter 3:8-9

For many, the most difficult problem with evil is its persistence. God “has set a day when he will judge the world with justice” (Acts 17:31). But why a future day of judgment?

Barbara Brown Taylor phrased it, “What kind of God allows the innocent to suffer while the wicked pop their champagne corks and sing loud songs?”

We may say, “Yes, Lord, we accept your wisdom in permitting evil and suffering for a season—but enough is enough. Why do you let it continue?”

The Bible echoes the same sentiment. Jeremiah said, “You are always righteous, O Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (12:1).

Why doesn’t God simply reward each good and punish each evil as it happens? Because God’s justice is not a vending machine in which a coin of righteousness immediately produces reward or a coin of evil yields swift retribution. Scripture assures us justice is coming. Everything in God’s plan has a proper time; the gap between the present and that proper time tests and incubates our faith. When reward and punishment are immediate, no faith in God is required or cultivated.

The wheels of justice may seem to turn slowly, but they turn surely. Some rewards of goodness and punishments of evil come in this life. And though ultimate rewards and punishments await the final judgment, considerable justice—both reward and retribution—is dispensed upon death, when God’s children immediately experience the joy of his presence and the unrepentant suffer the first justice of Hell (see Luke 16:19–31). This means that the maximum duration of injustice experienced by any person cannot exceed his life span.

Don’t we give thanks for God’s patience with Saul, the self-righteous killer who became Paul? Or John Newton, the evil slave trader who accepted God’s amazing grace and wrote the song that countless millions have sung?

God drew me to Himself in 1969. But what if Christ had answered the prayers of many in those days and had returned and brought final judgment in 1968? Or in 1953, the year before I was born? Where would I be for eternity? Where would you be?

I’m grateful God was patient enough with fallen humanity to allow the world to continue until I was created, and then continue further until I became part of his family.

Aren’t you grateful for the same? If God answered our prayers to return today, who might be lost that he plans to save tomorrow?

Lord, you are the potter; we are the clay. You have the right to do what you choose. But if we look carefully at what you choose, we may see wisdom and purpose and mercy even in what we don’t fully understand. Thanks for not answering the prayers for Christ’s immediate return offered by the generations that preceded me and my family. I’d hate to think of us not existing, of not being able to love you and serve you and glorify you forever.

This meditation is excerpted from Randy’s book 90 Days of God’s Goodness. Learn more.

Photo: Unsplash

Ray Ortlund, Sr.’s Example of All-Out, Risk-Taking, Happy Enthusiasm for Christ

When I was a young believer I was significantly influenced by Ray and Anne Ortlund. Ray wrote Lord, Make My Life a Miracle, a beautiful and timeless book. Anne wrote Up With Worship, an extraordinary book that had a huge impact in its day.

I also deeply respect their son, Ray Ortlund, Jr., senior pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He often refers to his dad and mom in his excellent blog that I follow. For instance, in this post Ray talks about his dad’s ministry journal and what it really means to be a pastor.

When Anne Ortlund died in 2013, this great story was told:

Before Ray’s passing in 2007, he wrote several love notes to Anne and hid them around their house for her to find later. One note she found in 2012 said, “How can I thank you for all you mean to me?”

Another note said, “I was born to love you.”

“That’s a good Presbyterian for you,” she laughed.

“He always had me on his mind,” Anne said. “He was so happy because he lived in the presence of God, but he was conscious of me too.”

In the blog that follows, Ray Jr. talks about the reasons for his father’s happiness:

The most important thing my dad taught me

I think about my dad a lot. I miss him so much it aches. But the most important thing he taught me was this. There is only one way to live: all-out, go-for-broke, risk-taking enthusiasm for Christ.

He used to say, “Halfway Christianity is the most miserable existence of all. Halfhearted Christians know enough about their sin to feel guilty, but they haven’t gone far enough with the Savior to become happy. Wholehearted Christianity is happy, and there is no other happiness.”

How did my dad get there and influence me to go there? He really, really knew that God loved him and had completely forgiven all his sins at the cross of Jesus. He did not wring his hands, wondering what God thought of him. He believed the good news, his spirit soared and he could never do too much for Jesus.

I am thankful for what I saw in my dad. It’s the most valuable thing anyone has ever given me. I want everyone to have this treasure.

Is Spending Money on Entertainment and Leisure OK with God?

Several years ago I had the privilege of doing a Q&A with Wayne Grudem. (I highly recommend his books Systematic Theology and Bible Doctrine.) In this video, Wayne and I respond to the question, “Is it wrong for Christians to spend money on entertainment and leisure?”

As we shared in the video, Scripture says that God provides us with material things “for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17, NLT). When I speak on the subject of money and giving, I try to always emphasize that phrase from Scripture and express how thankful I am for it, because it allows me to enjoy God’s creation without guilt. I’m grateful to have recreational items, including a bicycle and a tennis racket. Nanci and I spend reasonable amounts of money on vacations that aren’t “necessary” but serve to renew us. She and I sometimes go out to dinner, enriching our relationship. These things aren’t essential, yet they contribute to physical health and mental and emotional refreshment.

By God’s grace, we’ve found we can give away my book royalties and a good portion of our discretionary income, yet still have breathing room for legitimate recreational spending (and what we keep still leaves us wealthy in comparison with most of humanity). As I say in Money Possessions and Eternity, it’s not what you give but what you keep that determines your lifestyle, but giving away a lot helps what you keep to not rule you or be your idol.

I believe that as believers, we should be wrestling with our own wealth in this materialistic, wealth-centered culture and seeking to give more. We shouldn’t assume that just because God has entrusted all this to us He intends for us to keep it. By embracing lifestyles that free up money, we can invest in helping others and furthering the progress of the gospel. 

And yet, the answer isn’t asceticism, believing that money and things are evil. The biblical view is that God has provided for us in His creation a wealth of pleasures and comforts He desires us to enjoy, to His glory: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). When we worship God as God, everything else falls into place—and hobbies, sports, music, and entertainment can all enrich our lives as intended. (Unfortunately, because we’re fallen creatures and don’t see clearly, we can focus our lives on otherwise legitimate pleasures, turning them into idols. And some “pleasures” and entertainment are indeed harmful and addictive.)

So how do we find the right balance between how much we give, and how much we keep to use for our family’s needs, as well as for God-honoring recreation and enjoyment? I believe the tension reflected in that question is healthy. As we continue to grow in Christ, we prayerfully evaluate and seek God’s guidance. But may we always be determined to follow His lead as best we can discern it.  And meanwhile, we should be careful not to judge others, and imagine ourselves better than they are because of our different lifestyle choices. 

Photo: Unsplash

Keeping an Eternal Perspective When You Need to Move

Note from Randy: This is a letter I sent to a friend who’s a professional athlete, and was traded earlier this year to another team. He and his wife and children had to relocate to another city. I’ve deleted the specifics to make it generic and am posting it because 99% of it applies to any follower of Jesus who was happy where he or she lived, but needs to move elsewhere. Of course, some people are excited about moving, but many others leave with regrets and even dread at having to start over, and develop new friendships for themselves and their children. I hope this is of help to someone in that situation.

When you’ve been present where you invested in your church, neighborhood, community, schools, vocation, team, and all your working relationships, leaving that behind and starting in a new place is hard. (Something would be wrong if it weren’t.)

Nanci and I know a lot of missionaries, and we’ve visited them all over the world. Sometimes their hearts are heavy because they’ve left home, they miss their friends, and only gradually does their new location become their new home. So, while some people are missionaries to Indonesia, some to China, and some to Mozambique, you and your family can be considered missionaries to your new city.

The fact that you may have traveled far less distance doesn’t matter. You are representing God where you live just like missionaries in Uganda and many other places are representing Him there. (Finding a Bible-believing church in your new location, a body of believers you can serve, worship, and fellowship with, is an essential part of being part of God’s mission, so I hope readers who’ve moved will make finding one a high priority.)

Contemplating the fact that God has sovereignly sent you to fulfill His eternal purposes, and that He orchestrates the details of your life, can be an encouragement. Scripture says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 17:26). Since God determined the time and exact places you would live, it’s no accident which neighborhood you’ve moved to, who lives next door, who your children now go to school and church youth group with, and so on.

I love what Hebrews says about Abraham:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God….

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16)

So for now your new city is your “foreign country,” your mission field, but even then, as the relationships develop, it will start to feel like home. And you will have both old friends and new, as will your family.

I love that Abraham didn’t just move from one earthly location, Ur, to another, Palestine. While that was true, the passage says he, like God’s people of all time, knew that no place on the present earth was his true or ultimate home, but that was with God. Augustine wrote in his Confessions about longing for his heavenly home, “I am groaning with inexpressible groaning on my wanderer’s path, and remembering Jerusalem with my heart lifted up towards it—Jerusalem my homeland, Jerusalem my mother.”

While your location on earth changed with your move, remember that your true country, the better country, is in Heaven where God your Father dwells and you will join Him one day. The Carpenter from Nazareth has prepared that place for you and your family, so that home has remained constant despite the move.

When I had been a pastor 14 years and was 36, God suddenly called me—yanked me really—to move out of being a pastor of a church I helped start at age 22, and led me into launching a new ministry. At first it was sometimes lonely, as I really missed my fellow pastors, who were my teammates, as you have had to leave your teammates, some of them dear friends. But in time I could see why God had done it, and now it’s crystal clear.

These passages of Scripture encouraged me:

“The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.” (Job 17:9)

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

“I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8)

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” (Nahum 1:7)

My brother, may God do rich things in and through you and your family in the new place where He’s sovereignly placed you. 

Photo: Unsplash

Six Keys to Understanding the Treasure Principle

In this 10-minute video, Pastor Todd Wagner of Watermark Church and I discuss the six keys from my book The Treasure Principle:

The Treasure Principle: You can’t take it with you, but... you can send it on ahead.

“Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.” —Jesus, Matthew 6:20 

The six keys:

1. God owns everything; I’m His money manager.

We are the managers of the assets God has entrusted—not given—to us.

2. My heart always goes where I put God’s money.

Watch what happens when you reallocate your money from temporal things to eternal things.

3. Heaven—the New Earth, not the present one—is my home.

We are citizens of “a better country–a heavenly one.” (Hebrews 11:16)

4. I should live today not for the dot, but for the line.

From the dot—our present life on earth—extends a line that goes on forever, which is eternity in Heaven.

5. Giving is the only antidote to Materialism.

Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.

6. God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.

God gives us more money than we need so we can give—generously. 

Photo: Pixabay

Seeing Eternal Realities in the Olympic Games

In a recent blog David Mathis quoted John Piper on the Olympic Games. Some timely biblical thoughts with the Olympics going on now:

The Bible doesn’t mention baseball, basketball, or football, but God has something explicit to say about the Olympics.

The ancient Games were common knowledge in the first century, just as the modern Olympics are today. For more than a millennium, the Games happened every four years in Greece. Everyone knew about the Olympics. “Everyone who competes in the games,” writes the apostle Paul, “exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25, NASB).

God wants Christians to see through the Games to ultimate reality. Paul, explains John Piper, took the well-known Olympics and

taught the Christians to transpose them into a different level, and to see in the Games a reality very different than everyone else is seeing. He said in effect, “The Games are played at this level of reality. They run at this level. They box at this level. They train and practice and deny themselves at this level. They set their sights on the gold at this level.

…“Now I want you to see all that at another level. I want you to transpose the temporary struggles and triumphs of the Olympic Games onto a different level of reality — the level of spiritual life and eternity and God. When you see the athletes run, see another kind of running. When you see them boxing, see another kind of boxing. When you see them training and denying themselves, see another kind of training and self-denial. When you see them smiling with a gold medal around their neck, see another kind of prize.”

Read the full article.

Photo: Pixabay

Should Christians Save for Retirement?

When a man retires at sixty-five, studies show his chances of having a fatal heart attack immediately double. Our minds and bodies weren’t made to be shut down. Nowhere in Scripture do we see God calling healthy people to stop working. So before we think about saving for retirement, we should reexamine our thinking about retirement itself. How much of what we think and assume is based on our culture, and how much is really based on God’s Word and the leading of His Holy Spirit?

Of course, it’s perfectly legitimate to work without pay. You might donate labor to ministries and volunteer. But as long as God has us in this world, He has work for us to do. The hours may be shorter, the work different, the pay lower or nonexistent. But He doesn’t want us to take still-productive minds and bodies and permanently lay them on a beach, lose them on a golf course, or lock them in a dark living room watching game shows.

Is saving large amounts of money for retirement as essential as we’re constantly told? Paul commended the Macedonian believers, not for clinging to the little they had, but for giving beyond their means (2 Corinthians 8:3‑5).

The Macedonian Christians had virtually no material things, yet they gave beyond their means to the point of leaving themselves impoverished. If they didn’t need to think of tomorrow, why do we—with all our material wealth—need to be so concerned about storing up earthly treasures for thirty years from now?

I’m not saying we can’t use or shouldn’t have a retirement plan. I do. But as God’s children, we need to think differently about them. Our brothers and sisters in other ages didn’t have them, and neither do most non-American Christians today. Yet they’ve found God absolutely sufficient to meet their needs. Usually the wealthy are most consumed by retirement planning simply because they have the resources to think in those terms.

I agree with Larry Burkett’s assessment of the saving-for-retirement obsession:

Retirement planning so dominates the thinking of Christians who have sizable incomes that they overkill in this area enormously. The fear of doing without in the future causes many Christians to rob God’s work of the very funds he has provided. These monies are tucked away in retirement accounts for twenty to forty years. God’s Word does not prohibit but rather encourages saving for the future, including retirement (Proverbs 6:6-11; 21:20), but the example of the rich fool, given by the Lord in Luke 12:16-20, should be a clear direction that God’s balance is “when in doubt—give; don’t hoard.” (How to Use Your Money Wisely)

As I share in my book Money, Possessions, and Eternity, we must ask the same question about our retirement savings as all savings. Is this reasonable planning, exercising foresight as Proverbs commends? Or is it an alternative to trusting God, a backup in case God doesn’t come through? How is maintaining a generous retirement plan fundamentally different from the rich fool storing up for his later years to live out his life in comfort and security? We know what Jesus thought of that man’s retirement plans (Luke 12:16-21). Why should we assume He thinks differently about ours? We should study this passage and compare our attitudes, behavior (including giving), and plans for the future to that man’s, and ask how different we are from him. If there’s no difference, obviously we need to change something.

What would happen if I took part, most, or all of the funds I would otherwise put into retirement and invested them in God’s kingdom? Financial counselors would tell me that I would be “jeopardizing my retirement years.” Might God say I would be “enhancing my eternal years”? If I waste the money, spend it, or am just a poor planner, that’s one thing. But will God really fail me if I invest these funds in His kingdom in an honest effort to obey His words in Matthew 6:19-21 and many other passages?

I realize this is a troubling and threatening question. Believe me, it bothers me to ask it. Although my retirement savings account may be small by American standards, it’s still enough to keep many people alive and reach many people with the gospel. Nanci and I decided a while back to take out some retirement funds and give them to God’s kingdom. But we still have a significant amount left. Some day we may give more of it away, or none of it, or all of it. I don’t know. But I do know we must ask God, because it belongs to Him, not us.

I know missionaries who so believed in their work training young believers in Europe that they cashed out their retirement funds and gave them all to the ministry. Many Christians would shake their heads and say, “How foolish.” But if God commended the widow for giving away her last two pennies, wouldn’t He commend these missionaries who—even without retirement savings—have many more financial resources than the widow could have dreamed of? Isn’t their action consistent with Christ’s promise that if we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness . . . all these things shall be added to you”? (Matthew 6:33, NKJV) Were these missionaries fools? I don’t believe they were. God doesn’t honor lack of foresight and failure to plan or wastefully spending now what we should save for later. But He does honor His children who trust Him even when it involves risks.

The rich fool never had the opportunity to use the money and possessions he stockpiled for himself. Will our own excess funds hoarded for the future one day become as filled with worms as Israel’s hoarded manna? We don’t know whether Christ will return in our lifetime. But He certainly will return in the lifetime of some Christians. We also know this: All money stored in retirement funds, savings, insurance policies, houses, real estate, and personal possessions will become eternally useless the moment Christ returns. If the countless billions of dollars now invested in earthly accounts were freed up and poured into helping the needy and fulfilling the Great Commission, what eternal impact might result?

So how much is too much to save for retirement? I can’t answer that question for you. I have a hard enough time trying to figure it out for myself. But I do know that each of us should ask God because the money we are dealing with belongs to Him, not us. We should shut out the distracting noises of the world, tune our ears to God’s Word, and quietly listen for His answer.

If we consider “our” retirement funds off limits to God, we’re pretending to be owners rather than God’s money managers. When we ask God’s direction for our lives, we need to lay everything on the table. Whatever posture I take with financial planning must leave room—a great deal of room—for God.

You might like to also check out an Ask Pastor John episode, “Should I Invest for Retirement?”, as well as Piper’s book Rethinking Retirement.  

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