Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21 NIV)
I think it’s easy to talk about things like faith and obedience and compassion in abstract terms. The more abstract, the less convicting the truth is. So let me get concrete. Faith equals God-ordained risks in the face of fear. Obedience equals God-honoring decisions in the face of temptation. And compassion equals Spirit-prompted generosity in the face of greed.
If you really want to know how I‘m doing spiritually, all you need to do is look at my checkbook. It doesn’t lie. It reveals my priorities. It reveals my passions. And it doesn’t just reveal how I’m doing financially; it reveals how I’m doing spiritually. It’s one of the best barometers of spiritual maturity I know of. Don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly not reducing compassion to a financial transaction. I think generosity has as much to do with time and energy as it does with money. But sometimes love is measured in dollars.
-- Mark Batterson in “PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”
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