Friday, February 2, 2007

The Power to Create Wealth: A Gift From God

And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is to this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)
The Hebrew word for “remember,” zakar, means to mark, to recall, to call to mind, even to set as a memorial. It is an intentional act. It is keeping something at the front of the mind and not letting it get lost in a multitude of thoughts. In this case, what we are to remember is foundational to keeping the correct attitude and orientation toward God in the matter of wealth. There are many who have ended up in disaster and made a complete wreck of their lives because they have forgotten what Moses commanded the people of God to remember.

So what is it that we are to keep at the forefront of our thoughts? “Remember the LORD your God!” The Hebrew is most emphatic, “for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth.” This is the polar opposite, and the corrective to, the attitude God wants His people to avoid at all costs:
Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statues which I command you today, lest — when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; and fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end — then you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-17)
True wealth does not come by our own power and ability. It is a gift that comes from God to His people.

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