Daily Readings from Beyond Blessed

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for picking up this collection of Daily Readings from Beyond Blessed.

God is a generous God, and He has offered us the extravagant gifts of salvation and eternal life with Him. Since we are made in His image, believers should also exhibit His kind of generosity and extravagant giving. When God changes our hearts from selfishness to generosity, every part of our lives is affected.

My desire is for you to have a greater understanding of what it means to live beyond blessed. God blesses us for two reasons: He blesses us because He loves us, just like we love our kids. But He also blesses us so that we can be a blessing. Living beyond blessed is not about what we’re able to receive; it’s about what we’re able to give.

The way God blesses us when we are generous was the foundational principle of my book The Blessed Life. When I wrote it nearly twenty years ago, I assumed that the reader would accept the underlying assumption that we have to live within our means. It is a simple concept, but there is still an unmet need for teaching in this area. Understanding how to manage one’s financial resources comes before generosity; it is the first of the two legs on which this life of blessing walks. The term for this management ability is stewardship. That is the focus of Beyond Blessed.

When we manage our finances well, we can bless other people as God leads us. God also blesses us in supernatural ways when we steward the finances He gives us and when we’re generous and bless others. It’s then that we can truly live beyond blessed and be a blessing. You will find more peace within yourself and in your relationship with God and others. Your marriage and family will be blessed. And you will eventually find a treasure trove of rewards that God has prepared for you in heaven.

Follow along with me for ninety days on this journey through Beyond Blessed. This collection of daily devotionals contains passages from the book that will guide you along the road to good stewardship. You will relearn the concepts that are important to developing an attitude of stewardship and some practical steps needed to get there. You will also be challenged from time to time with reflection on your perspective and expectations about living a life of generosity.

Along with the daily readings you will find selected Scripture passages to help you understand the day’s material and to encourage you on the journey. There is also a daily prayer for inspiration and contemplation. Use these as a guide to express your thoughts and feelings to your heavenly Father and listen for Him to speak to you in return.

The readings are divided into fifteen sections that comprise the chapters of the book:

1. Maximum Impact, Minimum Stress

2. More Than a Budget

3. Your Perspective of Provision

4. The CFO of “You, Inc.”

5. First Things First

6. Humbly Grateful, Not Grumbly Hateful

7. Happy Heart, Happy Home

8. There Is Enough

9. Great Gain

10. The Witness Stand

11. Aim Before You Shoot

12. Hearses Don’t Pull U-Hauls

13. Hello, Mr. Budget

14. To Debt, or Not to Debt

15. Blessed to Be a Blessing

As you read each passage, I encourage you to be open to the Holy Spirit and listen for what He might say or reveal to you. Take a few moments each day to reflect upon your heart and circumstances and expect the Holy Spirit to come alongside you and transform your thinking and—most importantly—transform the attitude of your heart.

Of course, the purpose of this book is not just for you to learn about stewardship. You must put the principles of good stewardship and generosity into practice. As you do, you will experience all of the fruits of the Spirit, including what may be the greatest gift of all: the JOY that comes when you are living a life beyond blessed.

Day 1

TIME TO IMAGINE

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.

—Proverbs 31:25 NASB

I want to invite you to daydream a bit. I’m not suggesting that you mentally check out and head to the golf course or the beach in your imagination. I’m asking you to pause a moment and picture, as vividly as you can, how it would feel to live without financial pressure.

Imagine that you always have money left at the end of the month, rather than too much month left at the end of your money. I’m talking about a life in which you’ve forgotten what it feels like to have worry or stress about your finances. When confronted with a purchasing decision, your first thought is, “Lord, should I buy this?” rather than, “How can I afford this?” Imagine a life of daily peace, laying your head on your pillow at night with a satisfied soul and sleeping like a baby. If you’re married, you and your spouse routinely pray about spending priorities but never fight about money.

Picture a life in which you get to bless others whenever and wherever the Spirit moves you. You live with energy, purpose, and fulfillment because you get to consistently invest in the people and causes that mean the most to you. In this imagined existence, you live with the assurance that you are, in the words of Jesus, laying up treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:19–21). But in the meantime, you’re having a ball here on earth.

The highlight of a typical day might be noticing the frazzled-looking young mother in the grocery store aisle comparing prices on the cheapest brands of peanut butter while using her phone as a calculator and fighting back tears. You approach her, hand her a fifty-dollar bill, quietly say that God wants her to know that He sees her and cares about her, and simply walk away. Indeed, you spend your days looking for opportunities to be an answer to some desperate person’s whispered prayer—routinely having the privilege of serving as a living, breathing, tangible manifestation of God’s love for them.

Imagine not getting a sudden pit in your stomach when you think about your retirement years or old age. Like the wise, prudent woman of Proverbs 31, you smile at the future (v. 25). Go ahead and imagine all of this and any other aspects that come to mind of a life free from money pressure. Picture being free to follow to the fullest the adventure God wants to live alongside you.

See yourself experiencing a life of maximum impact and minimum financial stress.

Well, what do you think? Does that kind of life seem appealing? Gratifying? Peaceful? Of course it does. However, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. What you just envisioned was not necessarily the life of a wealthy person. In fact, many extremely wealthy people spend as much or more time worrying, fighting, obsessing, and stressing about money as anyone. The worry-free state you imagined is obtainable by anyone.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, You have provided for me in marvelous ways. I thank You for providing me with Your Word and Your Spirit to help me understand Your destiny for me. I ask for the wisdom to understand that there is a way for me to be a blessing to others as I lay up treasures in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

Day 2

TAKING THE FIRST STEP

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

—John 13:17

Notice in yesterday’s reading that I did not encourage you to fantasize about winning the lottery. Experience shows that a significant number of lottery winners end up unhappy or broke. Many winners end up alienated from everyone they care about. Suicide and divorce rates are higher among lottery winners. For some the money ends up being a curse, rather than a blessing.

The wonderful fact is that the truly “blessed life” you just envisioned is available to everyone, regardless of income bracket or social status. You can have that life. Anyone can. It requires only one thing: consistently living within your means. That’s the truth. Of course, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy or comes naturally. If living within your means were easy, it wouldn’t be such a rare thing in our culture. It wasn’t rare a few generations ago. In fact, it was the norm. We’ve lost a vital virtue somewhere along the way.

Wherever you stand right now, however ill equipped you may feel, however overwhelming your challenges may seem, you can take the first crucial steps today—then follow through all the way to a life “beyond blessed.”

It’s not too late. You haven’t gone too far to course correct. You are not disqualified in any way because of anything you’ve done, haven’t done, or suffered. You don’t need to have any specific talent or aptitude. You don’t have to come with anything more than a surrendered, humble heart and a willingness to embrace biblical wisdom. And you can start right now. You’ve already started by picking up this book.

I know this, not because I know you, but because I’ve seen the precepts and practices I’m about to present to you work for an astonishing variety of people from every imaginable starting point. I’ve received thousands of letters from readers whose lives were changed by The Blessed Life, but one special letter touched me in a particularly meaningful way.

It came from a lady who received the book when she was a nonbeliever in the midst of a divorce. She read it and God used it to transform her life on multiple levels. She got a glimpse of the reality that God is good and that He loves her, so she gave her life to Christ. She promptly asked her soon-to-be ex-husband to read it, too. He did so, and although it was never envisioned to be an evangelistic book, he got saved as well. As a result, their marriage was saved. And their lives radically changed as they started putting God first.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, thank you for Your grace and perseverance with me. Help me, through Your Spirit, to understand what I need to do to move toward a life of financial freedom and generosity—a life beyond blessed. I humbly submit my heart to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

Day 3

BLESSED BY A JANITOR

One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.

—Psalm 145:4

Yesterday’s reading was just the backstory the woman shared in her letter. She continued by describing a visit to Gateway Church. Eager to share her excitement, she told her story to the first person she met: our receptionist, who was alone in the church lobby, except for a nearby janitor taking out the trash just within earshot of the conversation. After finishing her story of how The Blessed Life had impacted her, she asked where she could find the church bookstore.

She hoped to buy ten copies for her friends and family. The receptionist directed her around the corner to our bookstore. When this woman arrived there a few minutes later, she found ten copies already set out and waiting for her. She asked how much they would cost—unsure how many she could afford—and the salesclerk smiled and said, “Not a thing. They’re yours! The price has been paid!”

Startled, the visitor asked our clerk to repeat herself. “Someone paid for the books. They’re yours to take. Have a blessed day!” The woman remained confused and pressed our store clerk for clarification. The bookstore clerk leaned in and smiled. “When you spoke to the receptionist,” she said, “did you happen to see the young man working behind you?” The visitor barely remembered.

“Do you mean the janitor taking out the trash?”

“Yes. He must have heard your story,” she continued, “because he ran down here and bought these books for you.”

The visitor couldn’t believe it. Overcome with gratitude and wonder, she gathered up two shopping bags filled with The Blessed Life and prepared to leave. As she did, the clerk offered one last tidbit of information about the blessing: “Oh, by the way. That janitor is Pastor Robert’s son.”

Yes, that was my son James, who was a student working part-time in our church facility maintenance department back then. It was he who overheard the lady’s testimony and hurried down the hall for the privilege of blessing her, assuming he would remain anonymous. I don’t share this story solely because I’m a proud dad, although it did bless me immensely to read that letter. I share it to encourage you that when a mom and dad start down the path of living wisely in order to live generously, their lives aren’t the only ones changed. Younger eyes are watching, learning far more from what you do than from what you say. You see, one of the many benefits of living the blessed life is establishing a legacy. Watching your children become adults who know how to be wise stewards and who understand the joy of generosity is one of the most gratifying things you can experience as a parent.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, help me remember that You provide for all my needs, even when I don’t know I have them or from where help might be coming. May I always be aware that anyone I meet could be a person, or even an angel, sent by You for my benefit. Help me leave a legacy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

Day 4

SETTLE THE OWNERSHIP ISSUE

Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

—Luke 17:33

My son James now leads Gateway Church’s stewardship department where he and a team offer financial training to those who request it. They share the very principles and processes I lay out in Beyond Blessed.

My hope now is to help you get there, too—not only so you can experience a life of maximum impact, but also so you can model it for the most important people in your life. Yes, I know these precepts will help you. I’ve had a front-row seat to watching them work in the lives of my children as they’ve grown to adulthood and launched households of their own.

Let me paraphrase something Henry David Thoreau once wrote: If you’ve built a castle in the air, that’s okay—just put a foundation under it. The castle of that life without financial pressure we imagined together earlier in the book may seem like it’s hovering just beyond your reach—so let’s build a foundation under it. That foundation is stewardship. Of course, establishing a foundation requires some effort.

Where does this process start? you ask. How do I begin the journey toward being a wise, faithful steward?

To build a foundation for your new life of maximized impact, we’re going to have to dig down into the very bedrock of how we understand God and His ways. That means burrowing down to a couple of simple but fundamental questions.

Whose am I? Or put another way, To whom do I belong?

If you’re truly born again, the answer is easy.

I belong to God, of course!

That’s the right answer. After all, most of us have heard and read the words of 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 many times: “Or do you not know… you are not your own? For you were bought at a price.” Saying yes to Jesus and following Him means laying down our lives and completely surrendering everything to Him. As Jesus once told His disciples, “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33).

Of course, we get the far better end of that deal. In the great exchange at the cross, we get rid of a broken, sin-marred, guilt-soaked life and an eternal future in hell. In return we get wholeness, peace, a cleansed conscience, meaning, and purpose in this life and eternity in heaven, to boot!

There is a broader principle embedded in Jesus’ warning: namely, that we invariably lose the things that we—out of selfishness, insecurity, or greed—try to cling to. But the things we release to Him in trust and love invariably come back to us many times over.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, I praise Your name for creating me and establishing the foundation of my life. I acknowledge I belong to You and depend upon You for everything. I will release to You anything that I might depend upon, and I will rely upon You for all my provision. I will be satisfied with Your marvelous grace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

Day 5

WHO OWNS YOUR STUFF?

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.

The world and all its people belong to him.

—Psalm 24:1 NLT

Once we settle the issue that we belong to God, there is a related ownership question we must settle in our hearts and minds. It’s one thing to acknowledge that you belong to God. But what about all the stuff? Who owns this world and all it contains? Or to bring that question down to a more personal level, Who owns your stuff? Who owns the money, home, cars, furniture, electronics, clothes, and all the material goods you routinely, casually call “mine”?

The answer to this question represents the foundational, fundamental, bedrock issue of successful stewardship and, therefore, of living a blessed life. There is no path to real blessing that doesn’t begin with getting this question settled fully and deeply in our hearts—once and for all time. This question, too, seems to have an obvious answer. Of course God owns it all. In another familiar Scripture, the Word plainly declares,

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.

The world and all its people belong to him.

(Psalm 24:1 NLT)

That’s pretty clear, don’t you think? Yet God Himself gets even more direct and specific when, out of His own mouth, we hear,

For all the animals of the forest are mine,

and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird on the mountains,

and all the animals of the field are mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for all the world is mine and everything in it.

(Psalm 50:10–12 NLT)

If you have a diamond ring, that diamond came from God’s coal and was formed under tremendous pressure in the heart of God’s earth. If you’re wearing pearls, they came from God’s oysters. There isn’t anything in your life that didn’t come from God’s creation.

We’re all born with a broken, fearful, grasping spirit. A dread of not having enough. Or running out. Or, heaven forbid, someone else having more. So, the most fundamental question every believer must answer is, Whose declaration of “mine” is valid—yours or God’s? They can’t both be valid.

The first question we asked and answered—To whom do I belong?—should settle this one. Because if I belong to God, then there is no question that everything I possess is ultimately His. The logic is inescapable. In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, Paul makes clear that if we’re born again, we should view our very bodies as being on loan from God. It’s yours to live in as a caretaker for eighty to a hundred years, but it’s God’s house your spirit is occupying.

Yes, it all belongs to God. Early on in my walk with God I settled this question definitively in my heart, and maybe that is why I struggled less with this stewardship issue than some believers clearly do. Understanding that God owns and we steward is the most vital understanding you must embrace to begin this journey.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, I know You made the earth and everything in it. I declare that everything I have belongs to You. I know You will always provide me with what I need, and I have no reason to fear the future. I am the steward of my body and all those things that I right now call “mine.” I will do everything I can to be a worthy steward. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

Day 6

BURDENS VS. BLESSINGS

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

—John 8:36

Understanding the importance of stewardship leads us to another question: If I am a steward, what kind of steward am I?

The life of a wise steward is a good life. A happy life. A blessed life.

As your daydream exercise at the opening of day one suggested, it is a life free of the grinding, soul-crushing pressure of worry about money, debt, or lack. A life largely without fear of the unexpected.

This is rare in our day. Statistics clearly show that a vast majority of Americans are stressed about money. A significant number are in financial straits. This unwise stewardship also negatively affects our health. And believers are just as likely to suffer these problems as unbelievers.

All of this unhappiness and suffering is rooted in poor stewardship, which in turn is rooted ultimately in a failure to recognize that all we have belongs to God. When we fail to put God first, the result is idolatry. This is just as true today as it was during Old Testament times.

If putting God first in our finances produces so many benefits, why is this so hard to do? Why is it such a battle to loosen our white-knuckle grip on our money and hold it with an open hand instead? Why do we resist so fiercely God’s kind, benevolent, for-our-own-good instructions about tithes, offerings, generosity, and submission to Him in our spending decisions? I believe the answer is twofold:

1. Fear

2. A scarcity mentality

When we don’t have a revelation of God’s faithfulness and love, we feel personally and solely responsible to be on the lookout for danger and threats. When we don’t understand that God is the Creator who brings supernatural multiplication, increase, and abundance, it’s easy to live with a constant assumption that whatever little bit we have is all there really is.

In dramatic contrast, putting God first and recognizing that it all belongs to Him liberates us from fear of loss and insufficiency. Think about it. When you own a home, the repairs and upkeep are solely your responsibility. But when you are a tenant, the ultimate responsibility for the property lies with the landlord. Homeowners may lie awake at night worrying about whether the roof needs to be replaced, but tenants never do. If there is a potential problem, they simply pick up the phone and say, “Hey, I think you may have a problem with your roof! You might want to check it out.”

In a very real sense, this is the daily reality with the steward of God’s possessions. This is why replacing your ownership mind-set with the stewardship paradigm is so freeing. This extends far beyond mere money to everything under your control, including your children.

Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, please release me from fear and a scarcity mentality. Help me put aside all worry about my possessions or my future, because You have already established them for me. You will take care of everything in my life, including my family. For that I am eternally grateful. In Jesus’ name. Amen.