Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
The Church hits a disappointing speed bump in Acts 5. The first 4 chapters continually reemphasized the church's togetherness. The people had everything in common. They sold what they had for the common good. One team. One purpose.
Until we meet Ananias and Sapphira. They are a part of the church. They are with the right people in a time when it was not easy to be seen as Christian. But Luke tells us that the pair sold a piece of property, and while giving some to the apostles for the common good, they decided to keep some back for themselves. Now, admittedly, that doesn’t sound bad at all. I mean, we recently sold a house, so maybe I need to confess to you that we didn’t give everything from that sale to the church.
The issue here, however, is not the amount of money but the amount of deceit. Ananias and Sapphira lied about how much money they had received so that they could appear sacrificial in giving, while at the same time protecting their finances more than their faith. They wanted to appear to have faith but keep their finances as a backup.
Does the strength of your faith dictate how your finances are handled? Or does the amount of your finances dictate how strong your faith is?
In one of His more memorable teachings, Jesus proclaimed, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:24). Sounds impossible, right? Many scholars believe that there was actually a gateway into Jerusalem called the “eye of a needle.” This was a defensive gateway that would have forced a camel to stoop and have all its cargo unloaded before entering.
Just like a camel would have to bow down to enter through the gateway, our finances must bow down to God as Lord. Jesus could not have said it any more clearly: “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). To what do you bow, faith or finances?
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.