Day Thirty-Eight
STOREHOUSES
Here’s a scary thought: What if God called you
to give beyond your comfort level? Would you be afraid? Would you try to explain it away or dismiss it as impractical? And in the process, would you miss out on a harvest opportunity for which God had explicitly prospered you in the first place?
—ANDY STANLEY
To enjoy true financial prosperity, both now and in a sustained measure later in life, you must embrace saving money. Though many view saving negatively, I assure you, I’m not suggesting you never buy a new car, new clothes, or take vacations. The key is saving with a vision to purchase these things from a place of abundance and not of lack.
Today’s chapter in The Prosperous Soul book explained the biblical significance of storehouses and the powerful imagery they convey to us today. I am convinced that in order to walk in the measures of prosperity God wants to release, you must grasp this subject as vitally important. You need to have a vision for saving that allows you to harness the power of supernatural blessing. (See Deuteronomy 28:8.)
The Israelites were accustomed to living with at least three storehouses of grain at all times. This was the responsible way to live—with two or three years of income stored away to cover their needs. To have less was foolhardy; to have more was unnecessary. Two to three years of reserves was all the grain they needed at all times, unless there were catastrophic problems like multiple years of drought, war, or famine. Wisdom dictated they have at least three storehouses—faith and their relationship to God would take care of the rest.
A storehouse mentality will protect you from spending when you don’t have the money to spend. In Israel’s context, storehouses set very clear limits. There was only so much grain in the storehouses. Once it was empty, there was no more. This is most certainly not the perspective of society today. When we are running on empty, we fall back on credit cards, loans, and other means of spending money that we do not possess in our storehouse.
Unfortunately, when this becomes your approach to finances, what comes into the storehouse is immediately spoken for. It has already been spent and needs to be directed toward debt. This is why I encouraged you about the necessity of budgeting. When you do not set clear parameters for the dispersion of finances, it becomes easy to spend money that is not available. Alternatively, when the money in that category is gone, you stop spending until you have replenished the account. This is how you embrace the storehouse principle in your everyday relationship with money.
For additional resources on these topics, I would recommend any of the materials by Dave Ramsey or Larry Burkett. They provide some excellent examples of how to practically manage your finances, regardless of the level of debt you have incurred or financial irresponsibility you have dealt with.
I want to take this moment to encourage you—you are not beyond God’s grace in this! The worst lie you can believe when it comes to overcoming poor stewardship is this: “You can’t get out of this.” The testimonies are endless of people who decided to embrace a “storehouse” approach concerning the allocation of finances—and went on to experience incredible victory, despite their horrible starting conditions. Don’t allow your current financial state to keep you from moving forward. Change begins by taking the first step. You will be glad you did!
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How do you understand the storehouse concept of financial saving and allocation?
List some benefits of embracing a financial storehouse system:
Evaluate your current financial state. You might be adhering to the storehouse system right now (although you don’t use that particular title to describe it). Maybe you’re not, and you’ve incurred debt as a result. Think about where you currently are and write down your vision for where you would like to be:
ACTION STEPS
The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
—DEUTERONOMY 28:8
I hope that you have a clear picture of where you currently are financially and have a vision for where you would like to be. I encourage you to get specific here. Surely, all of us desire to be financially stable and successful. Get a little more detailed. I want you to develop a vision for how you plan to practice the storehouse principle in your life and in the finances that have been entrusted to your care.