The (Christmas) Budget

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. Ecclesiastes 5:10 (ESV)

Do you fear the January bills after buying Christmas gifts?

Talking about spending and debt in a small group several years ago, an elderly gentleman shared some wisdom. He said, “He who buys what he does not need, often will need what he cannot buy.”

Though these are not Biblical words it is certainly a Biblical principle that we are to be good stewards of the money God entrusts to us.

There is a story in the book of Judges that made me examine how we think and act about money (Judges 17:1-6). The gist is that a man steals 1100 pieces of silver from his mother. He repents and returns it because he is afraid of the curse she puts on the thief (not knowing it was her own son). In return the mother prays that the LORD would bless him.

After getting it back, she dedicates the silver “to the Lord” to be made into an idol. Is she confused? God had clearly instructed the Israelites not to make images.

Her son agrees to this plan and even adds more idols. Then, he ordained one of his sons to be a priest to serve at this shrine in his own home.

I could not help but think this is exactly what we do. We cannot pretend that our Christmas spending is all “for the Lord” if we are spending unwisely. Christmas doesn’t provide a cover to mindlessly spend. We are to be good stewards even of money that’s saved specifically for the season.

We often exchange our money for things that become idols and say we are doing it to please God. Sometimes the idol is the gift giving itself. We so want to give the perfect gift that we lose our sense of reason and spend carelessly – buying what we do not need so (later) we cannot buy what we actually need.

Other times the idol is the status that comes from others thinking that we have such disposable income that we can buy whatever we want. This leads to the same outcome. We buy to impress people and then cannot pay for the things we need later.

The story in Judges ends describing the times. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

Christ is King over every Christian. When we fail to acknowledge Him and the great gift of eternal life that He brought us, we get caught up with idols just as Micah and his mother did (Judges 17:1-6). It then seems that there is no King and we do as Israel did in the days of Judges – whatever seems right to us.

The way we handle our money speaks volumes about our hearts. Do we spend to impress others or obey God? Are we taking on debt that will keep us from serving the Lord wholeheartedly later in the year?

If this is a year when spending is out of hand, it is not too late to exchange things for more “budget friendly” gifts. Better that than to be sorry later that we cannot buy what we need.

Christmas money is like all money. We cannot worship it (or what it buys) and the Lord at the same time (Matthew 6:24).