A CHECKBOOK IS A THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENT

 

            What is your “favorite” theological document? Maybe the better question is: what IS a theological document? It is a document (book, article, etc.) that discusses and perhaps interprets theology. According to Merriam Webster, theology is “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience.”

            Did you know that most of us have a theological document that is probably carried in our purse or wallet every day? And it is the theological document that we use the most. It’s not the Bible; it’s a checkbook (if you still use checks) and your credit and debit cards.

            If a theological document is defined as something that includes religious faith, practice and experience, then those financial documents definitely qualify! With God being the creator of everything and the provider of everything, then everything we have and everything we do comes from God. So it follows that how we utilize the financial resources in our keeping shows how we treat our faith and relationship with God, because it shows our practice!

            As disciples, we have the responsibility to care for everything that has been entrusted to us, and that includes our financial resources. How we use the resources entrusted to us means placing trust in God’s plans and provision and budgeting and using and spending accordingly. And caring for those resources means to use those.

            We must look for ways to use faithfully the assets with which God has blessed us. Before we believe that that is exactly what we are doing, we have to look at what we are actually doing. How? By looking at our checkbook, at our debit card statements and at our credit card statements and see how are funds are actually being spent.

 

            What we actually do, what we prioritize is no where more evident then when we look at how we have used those assets that God has provided to us in God’s abundance.

 

            We all have priorities. The questions are:

 

·                                             *   Are they God’s priorities or our own?

·                                            * Do we believe what we have is scarce because of having not stewarded our                             resources wisely?

·                                           * Do we trust the God of abundance in everything?