In the late 90s, the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes was a huge thing. Everyone in America with a mailing address got this big envelope with Dick Clark and Ed McMahon’s picture on the front announcing, “Someone will win the million!” The big deal was they gave away a million dollars every year, right at your door; the end goal for them was selling magazine subscriptions (remember those?).
Inside the packet were sheets of stickers representing magazines. If you bought one, you were automatically entered for the million. If you weren’t buying a magazine, you had to find the magic sticker, paste it in the right spot, and mail it back into Dick and Ed to be entered for a shot at the million.
So on this particular year, I was scouring the sheets for the million-dollar sticker to lick and stick on the mailer. It was right then, my search was interrupted by the Holy Spirit. He whispered to me—and I remember it like it just happened, “So, if you win this million, what would you change about your life? You’re either in my will or you’re not. What would you change?” . . . . I ripped the stickers in two and threw them in the trash. And I never even opened another of those envelopes. I don’t believe He was telling me sweepstakes are evil; He was saying once again, “Follow me. Trust me for what you need and what you get. Allow me alone to determine what you do with your life.”
Here’s the point . . . So many of us have this concept in our heads that if we won a bunch of money, received the big inheritance, or finally landed the big deal, we’d be able to get life the way we want it. . . . And therein lies the reason the ship never comes in. We’d make life the way we want it. We can fool ourselves into thinking all the money wouldn’t change us or we’d give a bunch away, but stats show when money comes in, people up their lifestyle and decrease their giving. Rarely do our hearts grow more generous, just because the bank account gets larger.
Today, if you got the big check of your dreams, what would you change?
Would you quit your job? Start a new business? Start a ministry? Support a ministry? Would you relocate? What would you start? What would you quit?
It’s ironic that whatever you answer might just be what God is telling you to do, but you’re letting money dictate the decision.
Pretend you’re rich for a minute. If that thought alters God’s will for you, what is that saying? What might you need to do? And what is determining your decision?
God has access to all we need, to accomplish what He wants us to do. We just have to believe Him.
No one can have two bosses. He will hate the one and love the other. Or he will listen to the one and work against the other. You cannot have both God and riches as your boss at the same time. —Matthew 6:24 NLV