Does "Lord willing" mean He isn't?

Why are Christians so afraid of success? There is a theme in church, which I've usually supported, by the way, that God does not want us to earn lots of money. But when I look closely at this passage (James 4:13-17), it speaks to action verses inaction. The action is boasting and bragging and the inaction is knowing what God wants us to do and not doing it. When we experience God's natural laws of success, the basic stuff we've all heard from Tony Robbins and dozens of other self-appointed guru's--work hard, make a list of goals, saturate yourself with images of your goal, surround yourself with people who support you, etc.--when we put to action these biblical principles, we often see results, and those results can be deceptive. We earn the house, the new car, the income, the ability to fill the gas tank all the way instead of just partially. We see the results and forget the God who created them. He made success possible. We pump the pump and water comes out, but God gives us arms, a pump, and water, and a system whereby water comes out when we do something an animal could do.

The work that we put into earning money decieves us into thinking we did it alone, and then we boast and brag.

The Bible says the Love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim 6:10). It doesn't say money is the root of all evil. It is a root, but the emphasis is on loving the money. When your love is directed at the money and not God and others, that root will grow into evil branches. This is true all around me. I see people get rich and change. When they were trying to get rich, they made promises to God. They promised to honor God with their wealth, to not be possessed by it, to use their mansion for ministry. But the problem is within the promise itself. Why do they want wealth so bad that they'll make promises to God in order to get it? Are they using their tiny apartment for ministry now? Are they giving their lives to God now? Aren't they now possessed by the desire for wealth? When they have it and no longer desire it, what will they be possessed by then?

My mom wants to be rich. She sees her ability to sustain a lifestyle with a double income and knows it's going to get harder and harder. She's a creative person and wants to cook up an idea where all her children can move back to Georgetown, CA and work on a big successful business with her. She wants security and closeness to family, not the image of wealth, or ego or pride. If she charged money for all the things she did free, she'd be wealthy now.

If the root is holy, so are the branches (Rom 11:16)

One economist says "evil is the root of all money." I like the quote, but I'm not sure what John Moore means by it -- I'm still trudging through his article. In America, that haunting statement may be true. The prettier things get that money can buy, the more it becomes rooted in evil. Have you looked at this years Christmas catalogs? I glanced over the REI catalog yesterday. How do they make the same stuff look prettier every year, so that I go buy them again? I have five fleece shirts, but this year's fleece shirt looks cooler than last year's. Maybe I'll wire REI's building in exchange for some fleece shirts. Then I'll pull the wire out and replace it with Monster Cable, because that's real hot now.

We need money because we don't trust one another. Money is proof that a trade was made, but instead of trading something of yours, I just want money -- or I have only money to give for what you have, so here you go. In Colorado, the love of money is rampant. Half of my life, my working life, is spent around rich people. I wire their homes so they can have speakers and liquid crystal display TV's in every room. Now there's a gadget that makes the stereo speakers play what's on the TV in that room. It's called ASAP. Asap is a good word, because it means as-soon-as-possible. Not only do we want the TV to play through the speakers, but we want it as soon as possible, so here's some money, get to work. Some spend $100,000 on stereo equipment and add it to their million dollar mortgage.

Wealth is honored in Colorado. The wealthy figured out something the rest of us haven't, they took risks, they read Sun Tsu's Art of Warfare. Many work hard for years and never achieve wealth, but some work doubly hard to create the image of wealth. I could get wealthy. I could hire some people, train them, follow behind them to make sure they wire the houses correctly, fix their mistakes, pay for their damage, pay their wage plus benefits and social security and workman's comp. I could duplicate myself six or seven times and create a little wealth, or at least the image of wealth, in a few year's time. I think I'll just buy lottery tickets. Actually, I'm already wealthy compared to the rest of the world. After all, I have a laptop computer and a car!

What is the root of your desire for wealth?

I see myself getting older, so there will have to be some changes in how I earn money. I live in America, where you are free to start a business, so, Lord Willing, I'll start another. I can't promise anything to God but obedience, and that was James' point anyway. I can't even guarantee I'll be obedient, but I'll try. One deception about money is this: it's so hard to get and so easy to lose that you change the rules once you have it. The premise before you have money is that the Bible is true and God is right no matter what. After you have money, the Bible is up for interpretation, and prayer about a business transaction is a cop out. Money complicates life. Poverty is simple (unfortunately). But you can get wealthy and still be blessed. The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. Prov 10:22. What kind of wealth does this blessing contain?

I went to two malls in Denver last Saturday, Cherry Creek and Flatirons. To say materialism is a problem in our country isn't enough. Each mall had valet services, and only the $100,000 cars were parked by the entrance. Why not minivans? Mom's with kids are more important than rich people with Lamborghini's, right? Maybe I don't understand because I don't have one. We went to a jewelry store that had it's own security guard and dozens of rich people buying diamond studded watches. The contents of that store could have fed Kenya for a month. I asked if they had the new Casio Pathfinder Solar Atomic, but they didn't even carry Casio. That's all I want for Christmas, if you're taking notes, but beware, it will set you back about three bills.

Does God bless us with material wealth? Does the proverb strictly mean we can get rich and not have all the problems money brings? Maybe what we believe when we are poor grows into what we have when we are rich. Are we planting a root of ego or humility?

Dr. Wayne Dyer has a list of five ego driven beliefs. When ego drives our lives, we tend to define ourselves with faulty principles like: I am what I have, I am what I do, I am what people think of me, I am my body, and I am my own God. When these things prove not to be true, we have to redefine ourselves. Who am I now that I don't have this? Who am I when my body changes? Who am I when I can no longer work? One woman defined herself clearly in 1977, when she was buried, by her request, with her 1964 Ferrari. Ego-driven beliefs are one of the many branches growing from the "love of money" root.

Does God want me to be rich? Yes, in many ways: Rich with friends, a rich giver, rich toward others with my time, rich with encouragement, rich in poverty, rich in spiritual discernment, rich in sensitivity, and rich enough to support myself and others, and even wealthy! (Pr. 10:4, good buddy!) But what does God mean by wealth? A Ferrari sized coffin?

God doesn't want us to say "Lord willing" just because he isn't. He wants us to grow wealthy within His blessing, without the trouble. Amen?