Imagine if you suddenly came into the possession of great wealth, say, $400,000,000.00 USD (that's $400 million U. S. dollars!) today. How would it immediately influence the way you thought of your life, how you lived day-to-day and how you paid your bills? I personally have given this a lot of careful thought and would like to invite you to join me in this journey of thought.
First off, I chose the amount of $400 million because it was an amount that I thought would seem to be next to impossible to spend immediately, thus nullifying any desiring affects on other aspects of life, either mine or other's.
Now, I believe the first thing I would do is place the principal ($400 million) into some type of interest-bearing account, where I could live on the interest itself without touching the principal investment.
I immediately would give a portion (a minimum of 10%) to the church, although there would be additional monies set aside in interest-bearing accounts for use when needs arose.
Next, any mortgages and outstanding debts I had would be paid off.
Believe it or not, I would continue working at my present job, as the apostle Paul once said, "For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.If a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10, ESV)
Now, let's address how I would imagine the mind would work in regards to having such a great wealth of financial resources. Even within the boundary of the interest and after having paid my debts, I would have both the remainder and my annual income with which to live, which would come still to an enormous amount of money.
Currently, our society seems to teach us that we are powerless unless we have money. Our news media daily depicts how society and our economy depend on marketing and stock trends, real estate and other investments. And we also see how our society and those around us allow those investments and trends to impact how THEY feel about life (especially when they've invested their entire mind-set around that!). Many have even ended their own lives after having lost materially everything around them, believing that they have nothing more for which to live!
In my observation through the news media of some of the wealthy celebrities among us today, I notice that many make bad decisions in how they live their lives. Many have broken laws and have seemed to have, through their wealth, skirted any real punishment and accountability. Others use their money to influence how others think of them in the name of seemingly showy phony altruism. I can only imagine that, with such a vast amount of financial resources, one might begin to believe that they are powerful and unstoppable in how they choose to conduct themselves.
Others, once coming into great wealth, seclude themselves from society, believing that others will prey on them and their sudden wealth. And, still others, immediately spend all their wealth due to their lack of wise planning.
Again, this is only my interpretation of what I have seen through the eyes of our news media.
I pray that, if God should choose to bless any of us with such financial resources, that we carefully get advice from the Godly men in our lives, that we will choose to use His resources wisely for His purposes.
There are have been so many times that I have been presented with opportunities to give but have not had the resources with which to do so. My heart grieves because I know that there are so many out there whose ministries desperately need financial support as well as prayerful support. I feel helpless in that I can only pray for them and wonder if I should pray for more finances as well.
