September Devotions for Money Leadership
I must take care of my own needs, I must survive.Another barrier to generosity may be our insistence that we have to hold tight to what we have or we will simply not survive. It is interesting to analyze what we deem necessary for survival. If you started a list, what would be on it?In the story of the Prodigal Son, (Luke 15:11-32), there was a time when the younger son thought he would be better off in a distant country. He took his share of his father’s wealth and went away. There he squandered his property in dissolute living. He then hired himself out to feed pigs in the field. His despair was so great that he discovered the cornhusks in the pig troughs were really all he needed for survival.Has there been a time in your life when you discovered the minimum necessary for survival? How long have you carried this list in your head? Many American families remember the Great Depression. This was a time when many people learned to live on the bare necessities. There simply was not much available, and survival from one season to the next was often a struggle. While most people recovered from this experience, the understanding of bare necessities and survival have guided their understanding of generosity.Giving is sometimes done begrudgingly, not because of present blessings, but because of past struggles. How has your understanding of generosity changed through God’s blessings?Prayer: O God of abundance, remind me what it means to have the bare necessities. Remind me also that you provide for my survival. As you grant me blessings, help me not to judge my generosity by the circumstances of the past, but by your present blessings. Amen. The money Leadership devotion is developed by the Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission Unit of the ELCA