What is the most un-talkable subject you can think of? It’s not sex, because people talk (at least with me) about their sex lives and thoughts all the time. And conversations – blunt, too-much-information conversations – about sex are all over our media.
 
But I recall a men’s small group Bible study a few years back. We had met weekly for months. We had talked about every vulnerable point you can name: trusting Jesus, work, marriage, parenting, etc. Profound secrets and failures had been shared, and we had prayed and cared for each other, taking all our needs to Jesus.
 
Then we brought up money … and the following week, the group dissolved. Done. Over. Not one guy wanted to meet any more. So I learned something then! Money is like electricity. Handle it – and all matters pertaining to it – with extreme care. And I have to own it that I was foolish to not expect that outcome. I thought that money was just one more arena of my life where I need Jesus. And therefore, it was one more topic of conversation.
 
Now, to this week, we just had a 24-hour retreat with the pastors of our daughter churches, and we talked about this very topic. Consistent themes emerged from our various stories. All of them agreed this is the hardest topic to address. Most of our men had never been taught about money. Some were raised in affluence. Most had been raised with little. Also, all of us learned by our teens that we needed to work. But interestingly, one of the last lessons we all had learned was that God faithfully provides and that He can be trusted.
 
The most joyful people I know – no matter what their financial position is – are the ones who know that God owns everything, that they sinfully want to hold onto everything, but that no thing can satisfy their hearts. So they have to have the saving work – the generous, sacrificial work – of Jesus to rescue them. And once they’re in touch with that, they start to grow in generosity themselves.
 
So that made me want to write this email. How can we make money a more talkable subject around Trinity?  And how we keep all of those conversations centered on Jesus and His generosity toward all of us?  Whatever that takes, I want to do that.

Things to Pray for:

• A full heart. Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 and ask the Father to help you trust Him that what He has said is true – that “having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work!”
• A loosening grip. How have you lived as if all that you have is yours when in reality all that we have is HIS?  Confess to Jesus your possessive heart, asking Him to forgive you and change you.
• Trust. Ask the Lord to reassure you in His Grace – that He was punished for these sins also, and that He has given you the riches of His record and His Spirit.
• Faith that expresses itself in love. Ask the Father to help you connect your stuff with His passions. Pray that He would help you love others with your possessions as He has loved you.