What We Need vs. What We Want

Needs and wants are mixed together and often indistinguishable by the human mind.

As a grad out of college I worked on a small temporary project along with a man who had worked for many years making $100,000 per year before losing his job in layoffs. The man in his sixties said that he never had children because he did not believe he could raise a family on $100,000 per year.

The point is not what income is needed to comfortably raise a family, but a confusion of needs and wants. It became clear in my discussion with the man that often he could not distinguish between the two.

It is the human condition which blinds us to reality many times. Sin has an affect on human thinking. It clouds our rationality.

Often the affect of sin on the human mind is dismissed. Many great minds are not Christians and many poor minds are Christians.

The affect of sin on the human mind is not so much on rationality such as math and logic, but on moral issues.

At times moral issues are heavily related to financial decisions. Some financial problems are moral ones at their core.

Not all sin affects all people equally but sin can often manifest in the blurring between needs and wants. Sometimes the blurring can cause the sinful mind to accumulate great wealth ignoring what it is doing in the world.

It is not always the blurring which leads to poor financial decisions, but also sometimes the blurring which leads to good financial decisions at any cost.

Promises of God

It is at times tempting to think God has broken his promises. Maybe we doubt he has provided for us, ect...

I suppose at times it is easy to feel like God has not done what he says he would. Often it is a matter of perspective.

Really we often are in a great confusion. We have confused needs and wants.

We do not have the fancy new gadget and we will surely die. We have not had this or that.

Maybe our lack has been very severe. You see God is always faithful.

Jesus was a man of sorrow well acquainted with grief. He entered into a manager and live a life which was very ascetic.

Many of his followers did the say. And yet his followers heard his promises and did not doubt them as if beatings, shipwreck, nakedness, famine and sword did not invalidate God's promises.

Why? You see they looked at the situation spiritually. God had provided them an infinite reward and they faced temporal sufferings.

It was a matter of perspective. Life in the present was very “bear” and eternity very “bull” to use financial terms.