How to Glorify God
With Your Wealth
Everything we own belongs to God. Everything we have been given has come from God. This computer. This lamp. This phone connection and the wall of my flat that it's plugged into. All the world is God's and everything in it as he created all things and by his will they have their being (Revelation 4:11).
Because of this, God is worthy of our praise. We are called upon to glorify (extol/praise/honour/magnify) him as our creator and sustainer. Not only that, we are called to glorify him because he is our saviour and redeemer. Our Lord and our master. Our sovereign king, our ruler. “[L]et us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God,” declares the writer of Hebrews (13:15). And the Psalmist says, “You who fear the Lord, praise him!” (22:23).
It is not surprising, then, that glorifying God is the prime task for us as Christians, followers of Christ adopted to be his children. Sure, we are called upon to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation,” (Mark 16:15) and certainly we are commanded to “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions,” (Romans 6:12) but all these are really part and parcel of the Big Work that we are called upon to do as Christians: glorifying the Lord our God (1 Corinthians 6:20).
Glorifying does not just consist of telling God how good he is and thanking him for what he has done. Glorifying also requires that we cause others to glorify God. That is why there are so many commands in the New Testament to behave in an upright and righteous manner because our behaviour is of prime importance as to how other people view God (Matthew 5:16; 2 Corinthians 9:13; 1 Peter 2:12). We are God's representatives here on earth; we should not behave in a way that will cause others who do not know him to blaspheme his name.
This brings us to the very subject of wealth and what to do with it. How do we glorify God with our wealth? How do we use it in such a way that other people will be compelled to praise his name and put their trust in him?
I don't think that this is something that we, as Christians, are used to doing. Many of us tend towards feeling guilty about the wealth we have and prefer to hide it away (see Ben's introduction). I'm not saying that we should openly flaunt our wealth either. But if we are rich, God has made us rich, and if we are poor, God has made us poor; the question is, whether rich or poor, what are we going to do to glorify God with what he has given us?
I'd like to encourage you to think creatively about how to do this. Your situation is probably very different to mine or someone else's, and there may be things which you are able to do which I couldn't or wouldn't know how. Below are some suggestions of ways in which you can glorify God through your wealth, grouped into three loose categories: giving, sharing and serving:
1. Giving
There are many ways to give money to the work of the gospel and this is one of the easiest things to do to glorify God. In addition to your home church, the number of Christian organisations out there who are doing great work and are short of cash is phenomenal. Consider supporting missionary societies like CMS or Interserve who send people all around the globe to share the gospel with many peoples and nations. Consider supporting organisations that print and distribute Bibles, such as the Bible Society or the Gideons who bring people into God's kingdom simply by spreading his word. Consider supporting specialised ministries such as campus ministries (the Ministry Training Strategy or the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students), industry ministries (Christians in the Media or ECOM [Evangelising Commerce]), or Christian aid organisations who make Bible teaching an integral part of their programs (Australian Baptist World Aid certainly does this). Certainly, it's important to help the poor, the orphaned and widows, but if we believe that Jesus will one day return and usher in the new age of God's kingdom, we will make gospel work a priority.
We don't, of course, have to confine our giving just to missionaries, Bible societies and other full-time Christian ministers. If your Christian brother or sister is in need, do not hesitate to provide. A friend once gave Ben a pair of shoes when his old ones died and they lasted him for years and he was very grateful. When I was in high school and my Christian friends found out that I didn't own a complete Bible, one of them went out that very night and bought me one and I read it from cover to cover. Do not be embarrassed about sending people money if they really need it; tell them to thank the Father, not you, and emphasise your love for them which stems from the love of Christ who died and rose again on their behalf. Buy someone a meal some time and prove that there is such a thing as a free lunch. Get a friend or relative a Christian book or a subscription to The Briefing for Christmas or their birthday so that they may learn more about Jesus or grow in their walk with God. I'm sure you can think up more ways to give to others in such a way so that they glorify God.
2. Sharing
I think it's easier to give than to share. Sharing invites intimacy and we usually view intimacy as being dangerous because it means that we have to give up something of ourselves. Often we are too embarrassed to share because of what it might reveal about ourselves to each other. And yet we have been given so much that it is a great shame not to share.
Try sharing your wealth with others a bit at a time. Open up your house and invite people to stay. For travellers coming from overseas this is a great blessing and lifts the burden of having to find accommodation in a strange country where s/he might not know anyone except for you. As we are at the halfway point between Central Sydney and Wollongong/South Coast, often we have guests staying the night who take refuge in our bunk beds from the fatigue of having to travel long distances to get home. And as your guests and visitors stay with you, you can share with them your hospitality, your food, your possessions and, of course and most importantly, your lives. Hospitality contributes greatly to the building of relationships and relationships, I have so often been told, is the best grounds for sharing the gospel.
We've got a friend who likes to share his car with others. He has an eight-seater van called “Obadiah” (ie. “gift of God”) which he periodically lends to people to help them move things and transport people. He sees his car as an extensions of his ministry and often he will take time out for whole afternoons to help people shift their furniture.
The computer is also a great object for potential sharing. One time when I was working in the School of English, a friend of mine who was taking one of their courses was completely stressed out because she had several essays due that week. She asked me if there were any computer labs she could use to work on them and, at the time, our Uni didn't have those facilities available. I wished that I had had my laptop with me; I could have lent it to her and given her some peace of mind. I really appreciated having access to my mother's office while I was doing my Honours; whenever she wasn't teaching, I could pop in there and use her Mac to do database searches, look up things in the library catalogue and even work on some of my assignments. It seems odd, but I know that all our assets, like computers, can be used to glorify God.
3. Serving
Part of our great riches in Christ is not just our wealth—our material goods, our money—but also the skills that we have gained as a result of that wealth. Living in a rich country usually means that we have had the opportunity to go to school (sometimes even very good expensive schools) and become educated. The skills we have learned (calculating maths, touch typing, speaking French or even driving) can be a great ministry tool to further the gospel.
Our church runs an English Learning class every Thursday morning for people in the community who come from non-English-speaking backgrounds who wish to learn English. Through their contact with these people, they have brought many to know Christ. Matthew Meek, who works with the Evangelical Christian Union at the University of Wollongong, can speak fluent Indonesian and Japanese (he studied these languages at University), and he's currently learning Mandarin. How wonderful that he can minister to international students in their own language! In the course of his work, he is training and equipping these students so that they can be missionaries in their home countries with an already perfect understanding of their own language and culture.
Driving, I think, is a very valuable skill one can use to serve others. The ministry of the car affords the ability to give people lifts, cart things around for others and help deficient people like us to get our licenses. And on the road there is ample time to strike up conversations about the cross of Christ and his sacrificial love for mankind.
Glorify God!
Think of what you have that you can give. Think of how you can give it to bring praise and honour to our God. Think of what you have that you can share. Think of how you can share yourself and your possessions to further the work of the gospel. Think of what you can do, having grown up in a rich country. Think of what you can do to serve others and cause them to magnify the Lord for his abundant goodness. And glorify him, my brothers and sisters in Christ; glorify God with all that you have! We have been made for nothing else.
Karen is very grateful that she has a big rich Daddy up in heaven.
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