"You cannot lay up for a rainy day if you are trusting Jesus Christ."
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, [and ] gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? [Yet ] a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
There is a difference between putting your trust in riches, in living primarily to accumulate wealth, and in merely being wise and prudent. We are to be wise stewards of the things that God blesses us with. And consider ants: they don't just gather food for themselves individually. It is a collective thing. The ants that gather - because not all ants gather - perform that task so that the entire colony eats and survives the winter, including the ants that have other jobs. So, if you save and invest your money wisely, that can provide you with the substance to give to the church and help the needy. I love reading stories about how men and women of modest means - working class people and so forth - live frugally (not miserly but frugally) and are able to make large gifts to churches and charity as a result. Other people are able to take care of members of their family who fall into hard times because of their prudent financial habits. (If there were more people who practiced good Christian financial stewardship like that, we wouldn't need this leviathan government social welfare state, would we?)
The teachings of Jesus Christ do not set themselves against what the Bible teaches about stewardship in other places. And we should not take the teachings of Jesus Christ, where He was contrasting the temporal things of this world to the eternal kingdom of heaven, out of context.
James 4:9-13 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Planning for the future, including financial planning, is biblical. As with ALL things in the Christian walk, one must remain balanced.
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/ask-pastor-john/should-i-inv...
Brief excerpts:
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Why should we assume that the post-working years should be provided for from heaven and the working years should be provided for from labor? I don't assume that.
I am not confident the author best reflected Chambers' intent which was not that saving for a rainy day was frowne
d upon but that our confidences cannot be founded on such. As he said we must calculate with God in view.
I fear too many latch on to one verse without considering the rest of scripture and the problem is compounded when they elevate someone like Chambers (or even Spurgon for that matter) to the level of scripture. I actually wrote on the issue of saving last summer. You can read the article here:
[url ]http://bancroftbaptist.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-good-to-save-ahead.html
I've been poking through a little booklet called " http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24293 ]Christian Devotedness " by the Father of Faith Missions, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Norris_Groves ]Anthony Norris Groves .
It's a conviction perspective on some Scripturs that you will not hear a lot among us. I'm not done mulling it over and how these various passages should apply to my life.