There’ll be extra-credit given to anyone who remembers a rock group by this name. However, instead of being about Blind Faith, this post is about blind faith in relation to money management and the will of God.
An acquaintance recently said, “I’m realizing that the most important thing I can do is give up the control I think I have over my own life so that the Lord can bring about His control in my life. I need to trust and give up control.”
What’s so astonishing to me about this quote is that just two years ago this same person emphatically told me that it was God’s will that they were able to buy a particular house. In answer to my question as to how they knew that it was God’s will to buy the house, the response was, “Well, we got the house, didn’t we.”
Suffice it to say, higher mortgage payments due to an adjustable rate mortgage coupled with other significant financial blunders is putting a severe strain on this couple’s relationship – not only with each other but also (as I see it) with God. What’s most interesting to me is the inability (or unwillingness) to understand that a series of poor financial decisions – and not “the will of God” has brought about their difficulties. I can only surmise that the “faith waters” just beneath the surface are roiling. I see a desire to admit that “mistakes were made”. However, admitting to mistakes is to admit that they were exercising a false faith by believing that God gave them the house in the first place.
I think of someone who’s blind and I think of someone not able to see. Duh! However, Webster’s dictionary definition of the word ‘blind’ clarifies what I believe to be the root cause of this couple’s difficulties:
- Unable or unwilling to discern or judge.
- Having no regard to rational discrimination, guidance, or restriction.
- Made or done without sight of certain objects or knowledge of certain facts that could serve for guidance.
The reality is that God has provided a “wealth” (pun intended) of information about money-matters. It appears to me that this couple is experiencing the consequences of financial decisions that are inconsistent with biblically based money management practices and that their current difficulties have nothing to do with the application of God’s sovereign will.
2 Responses
Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood. One album, One hit – “I Can’t Find My Way Home”. Do I get a Mountain Dew?
Could it be that God wanted him to have the house but he just made a bad decision in how to get it – bad financial choices?
-Todd the Thorn.
Congratulations, Todd. as you get the “extra credit”. No Mountain Dew, however, as that wasn’t the offered “prize”.
Irrespective of poor financial decisions, how does one determine whether or not God wants them to purchase a specific house – or any house for that matter?
Bob