Jehovah Jireh The Accountant

The problem: Consumerism has consumed us.
Human nature is unchanging. Man's cultivation of greed and impulse of self-preservation provide the fuel to life in our modern concrete jungles in the same manner that it provided life's motive for our progenitors. Although technology changes with the times, this concoction that acts as a respirator for too many has walked with mankind since our genesis. Lets face it... life is expensive, and at times daunting. At twenty-three years of age, most people's basic bills include; rent, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone, student loans, and possibly car payments. These are considered necessities by society. One could argue that today, television and internet bills are deemed necessities as well. Then add a few credit cards, food, clothing, etc... Our lives are consumed by working and working trying to sustain and purchase. Some of us have to add a kid or two to the mix as well. It becomes mesmerizing. I believe that America today is no different than it was in our colonial stage in the sense that mankind is linked by the fear of providing sufficiency for tomorrow. Maybe a few centuries ago Indians posed a bigger threat then debt collectors and blackberry bills, but hey... anxiety is anxiety.

The problem here is that we become consumed by tinkering with our individual puzzles of how to fit which paycheck to which bill; it is pathetic. We waste our lives trying to survive, and we exhaust our energies playing in the wrong game. As individually created beings, we are called to follow Christ, and to focus on the "eternal." We are given a simple choice between submitting to this calling, and damnation. How can we be freed to follow Jesus when we are enslaved to our consumerism and consequent debts? The distraction is dangerous.

If it weren't for my unwarranted fear of Christian acronyms, here would be the point in this essay where I would post a cute picture of a frog. Seriously though, we must dig deep to find this entrenched fear of "having enough," (whatever that means) and, in faith, submit that to God.

Mathew 6:19-34 says "
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23"But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth. 25"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' 32"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God's desire for us is that we worry about Him... that's it. Period. God calls Himself "Jehovah Jireh," which literally translates to "The Lord Will Provide." It comes from the root Hebrew word "to see" or "foresee" like a prophet. He sees our needs well before we even do. (Psalm 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.) We were made to serve and to worship Him, anything in our lives that rises to interfere or distract from our purpose is not of God. All Our Provider wants is for us to have clear access to Him. That is the entire reason that He bothered to create us. If God in His omnipotence does not have the daily contact with us that He so desires, then we are gravely amiss in the direction of our lives. Why do we sometimes feel that we are stranded in our situations? God has parted seas and wiped out nations for the comfort of His people. 1 Peter 5:7 instructs us "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." He wants nothing more than to help us to find our way to Him.

How can we learn to relax in God, and pursue what He wants us to pursue?
In order to solidify our dependence on Christ, we must work daily at keeping life in perspective.
In Ephesians chapter five, verses three and five states that greedy and covetous men have no place in the Kingdom of God. Verse five indicates that covetousness is idolatry. "5For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. " Do not allow yourself to want what other people may have. Greed posseses poor people in the same manner in which it possesses the rich. We need only to be consumed by God.
Hebrews 12:1-3
1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

We cannot serve God and money. Since we were born into sin, and are stuck with our sinful human nature, we must actively fix our eyes on Jesus, because our natural tendency is to chase self satisfaction.
Proverbs 23:4-5
4Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. 5When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

If we feel that money has too great a hold on us, we must let it go.
Mathew 18:7-9
7"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! 8"If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. 9"If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

These are some serious words uttered by Jesus, the man who owned only one tunic when he died. Whatever the cost, do not bow down to money and materialistic things. The more money has a hold on your life, the more you should give away. 1Cor 9:7 says that "the Lord loves a cheerful giver," so give freely expecting nothing in return.

Please, let us not be distracted by the worries of tomorrow. Let us instead be so caught up in God that we are too distracted to feel anxiety. Tithe, even at the end of the month, and turn down that extra Sunday morning shift when it is offered at work. Trust that Jehovah Jireh will reward faithfulness with His company.

Duet 4:23-35
23"So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you. 24"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25"When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27"The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD drives you. 28"There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29"But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 30"When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. 31"For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. 32"Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33"Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? 34"Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35"To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.

Let us strive to get to a place in our lives where, like Paul, we can honestly say, "I have covered no one's gold or silver or clothes." (Acts 20:33) Pray that God will enable us to eradicate our distractions, and actively seek Him; He will take care of everything else.