Wasteful Thinking

REAL ISSUE: Wasteful spending begins with wasteful thinking.

RESEARCH AND STUDY

In our last issue, we discussed how wasteful spending was an act of disobedience. But disobedience doesn’t just happen. Much like sin, disobedience is a decision and a decision involves thought.

As a child, I remember I would hear older people whispering and I’d try to ear hustle. Almost immediately one would speak up authoritatively and say, ‘This is grown folks business! Gone!’ That meant ‘What we are whispering about is too much for your young mind to handle.’ I knew to be apart of that conversation, I would have to grow up – but that didn’t stop me from thinking about what little bit I heard.

In this instance with the father and his two sons, notice that it was the younger who asked his father for his portion of goods. Before he ever approached his father with the demand, you know as well as I do that he had to have given it some thought. His young mind had been thinking about things that he too was not prepared to handle. For long periods of time, he’d been thinking about what his father had and how much of it was his. He had to have been estimating how much of the real estate and assets technically belonged to him, perusing his father’s bank statements, and ear hustling when his father spoke with his accountant and attorney.

He’d essentially decided that his father had too much and it was time for him to break bread. For my ebonicly challenged readers, it was now time for his father to give him his inheritance. It reminds me of the J.G. Wentworth commercial that says, “It’s my money and I need it NOW!” Yeah, ya boy was ready to let it do what it do! But here is what I want you to think about. His wasteful spending venture was a process. It didn’t just happen overnight. He thought about spending wastefully. But how?

He fed on it. He consumed large amounts of television that advertised places, products, and services that catered to his wasteful thoughts and listened to music that ministered wastefulness to his spirit. He saw people tweet about their wasteful escapades and listened to his friends brag about, wear, and ride in their waste-mobiles to Club Waste. You’ve been there. It’s the place where you have to deliberately purchase a wasteful wardrobe to get in and afterwards, you go to breakfast where you wouldn’t dare leave any waste on your plate.

I said all that to say this; wasteful spending begins with wasteful thinking. He’d been spending too much time fantasizing about cars, trips, clothes, and all the exotic women he would have once his father gave him his ‘portion of goods.’ Bottom line boys and girls, this boy spent too much time thinking wastefully. What about you – child of God? What have you been thinking about?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Make a list of your expenses and thoroughly analyze if the expense is a waste. Ask yourself is this expense needed, is it too expensive, is it unhealthy and is it ungodly? Did I purchase this to impress someone? Did I incur this expense to try to keep or manipulate someone? If so, consider cancelling it.

Pay attention to what you’re feeding on. After you watch or listen to certain music and shows, or when you’re around certain people, do you have the desire to spend? If so, don’t watch or listen to that anymore and limit time spent with those people.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Seek God. Go to Him before you make any purchase. Remember, though you’re an adult, you are still a child of God and as such, you require permission; especially in your finances.

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