Stress Test Devotional May 11
May 11, 2024
Defenders of capitalism rightly point out that two billion people have moved out of poverty through the capitalistic international order within the last generation, and this is more material progress than any other 100-year period in human history. There are key ideas of the free market that connect well with our faith. Yet Christian belief also constrains capitalism, and it does so in several distinct ways. First and foremost, Christianity insists that life is more than material blessing and that materialism is a sin. To reduce life to acquisition is to impoverish the human condition in a spiritual and moral sense, by reducing people to consumers and units of production. We value what is unseen and insist that success must be defined in a broad and deep way if it is to correspond to true reality.
Have you ever allowed material desires to eclipse or undermine your spiritual purposes?
How do you combat materialism in your life?
DAY 26
THURSDAY| AUGUST 24, 2017
GENESIS 5
There are many key faith concepts that should shape our economic lives. Besides our insistence that the Kingdom is as real as the stock exchange, there is our idea of generational responsibility. Investing in rising generations, rather than simply maximizing personal consumption, is part of this. So is stewarding natural resources and the environment on behalf of those as yet unborn. Every generation must discipline what it consumes and balance what is conserved with what is used, so that future generations will be blessed. This idea drives biblical genealogies and Genesis directions, and it disciplines any capitalist regime.
Pray that our government will have a long-term focus on future generations and deal with debt and the environment.
FAMILY TIME—
How have previous generations in your family cared for you?
How are you caring for rising ones?
