A successful football team requires good solid players at all positions with solid basic skills and disciplines. All the best equipment, team spirit, and even savvy coaching will never substitute for gifted, qualified and skilled players. The same is true of our national economy. A solid national economic position begins with the homes of our nation. Homes that are bound with insurmountable debt are the destruction of an economy. Unfortunately we have a national leadership that has encouraged and facilitated this untenable debt load. The production side of our economy has expanded by the inflated buying power of debt. And now to support that expanded production side it seems the only solution is to facilitate greater debt.
The real solution, though it will be tough to swallow and uncomfortable to walk through, is to reduce personal debt and encourage savings rather than debt. Most easily stated, the problem is run away covetousness. God clearly teaches us about economics.
Here at Bethel Baptist Church we are presently studying the subject from the fifth chapter of Ecclesiastes. Solid economics begins with the clear understanding that the wealth of the world is not ours to exploit to our own personal satisfaction, but rather that it is a God-given stewardship to manage with carefulness and compassion. Note this one simple verse:
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Notice also what Solomon says regarding those who would exploit their opportunities in the realm of economics:
Ecclesiastes 5:8
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
God is watching what our leaders are doing today and there will be an accounting. God is also watching how you manage your stewardship. Are you prepared for the day of His accounting? I encourage you to stick with us through this study of Ecclesiastes.
