House Reflections: Money and Possessions

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

 But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:6-12

 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. Hebrews 10:32-36

These passages sum up alot of what we have been learning through the house concerning money and possessions.  You don't necessarily think about where your treasure is until it is seemingly in danger of being destroyed or stolen. (This could very well include other treasures, such as a husband, child etc but here I am focusing specifically on money and worldly possessions).  The Lord has used this experience to expose areas in which we were storing up treasure on earth rather than in heaven (which for us has primarily been about our heart attitude towards the house/savings rather than the tangible facts concerning both).

The Lord has continually brought before us the CHOICE to decide where we will place our treasure concerning this house/the savings in it:

• when Joshua bought it
• when his first buyers fell through
• when Mark was late on his first down payment
• other late payments during his time in India
• as we learned the interior of the house had been destroyed
• when Mark stopped making payments all together and was not able to make the balloon payment
• not knowing how or when we would be able to get Mark to leave the house
• receiving no income from the house and having to budget for both our mortgage and apartment rent as newlyweds
• legal fees
• finding out the house was worth significantly less than would be worth selling it for (i.e. Joshua's hard earned savings was significantly less than before)
• finally the cost of significant renovations from our personal savings. 

Each of these situations provided an opportunity to TRUST the Lord and choose to be content with what we have, recognizing that it is all His anyway. Its easy to just say that but much harder to live it. By God's grace He is teaching us to live it (ahhh, so much still to learn!).  And it brings us much joy to see Him changing our hearts and giving us greater unity in our marriage concerning finances (more on that later!)

Its so true, just like Karis, naked we come into the world and naked we depart. We have earned nothing and even what we think we've earned or saved will not last. Why do we convince ourselves otherwise!?

This has really been a process for us (and still is). Not only are we called to accept the plundering, we are called to JOYFULLY accept it! Why? Because by God's grace and the power of His Spirit we believe that we have a BETTER POSSESSION and an ABIDING ONE! This verse really hit home with us. Mark, in many ways, plundered our property in the Bayshore house. But this house is not our treasure, Christ is. And in Him, and Him alone, do we have a better and abiding prize.