Lesley Wilson March 8th 2015 ~ Vision drives budget

These musings come about because I muse a lot on stuff that I read – and I read a lot. A couple of days ago, I was struck by a statement I read in one of my daily devotions: Vision drives budget, not vice versa. Could this ‘bon mot’ (good word) be more descriptive of the topsy-turvy nature of God’s way? Jesus didn’t put it this way – not in the transcript we’ve got, anyway – but he used a much more potent depiction when he commended the offering of the widow’s mite, her all, into the treasury.The section of Scripture I was reading for the day was from Deuteronomy 1, where Moses reminds the Israelites why they have been wandering in the wilderness for the past 40 years. Despite the good report brought back by the 12 men who had been sent into Canaan to spy out the land God had promised them, the people were overcome by fear of the people (“stronger and taller than we are”) and the size and strength of the cities they would have to fight against. They “grumbled in their tents” against the command to go and take the land, so the Lord disqualified them from entering and gave that adventure and reward into the hands of the next generation.The eyes – the imaginations – of the Hebrew people were overwhelmed by what they saw in the natural; they decided God’s plan was ‘unrealistic’, that their natural ‘capitals’ weren’t up to it. There were giants in the promised land!God’s domain, heaven, is the real ‘reality’. That’s where the plan, the power and the provision of vision begin, proceed and end, worked out through our obedience. We can speak of ‘realistic objectives’ and whittle away at the vision to cut it down to a more manageable size from our point of view but where’s the faith, where’s the advance, where’s the excitement in that?The church is a body, a living, multi-faceted organism, which is meant to work and walk as one, following our leaders – the ones who have prayed and sought God for our church’s direction and objectives. The vision and its targets have been set before us. Now we get behind it, engage with it, support it. Let’s not try to make the vision fit the budget – that’s not how God’s upside-down economy works. Don’t look at it and see giants and thick walls in the way. God told the children of Israel not to be afraid of the giants in the land, that He would go ahead of them and fight for them. We, the new Israel, are already in the land of promise but it hasn’t been taken and settled yet; we are still advancing - or are meant to be.Certainly there are giant challenges before us. Paul prayed for the Ephesian church that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened in order that they might know His incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1:18,19). That’s us in our time - and isn’t that just Paul’s way of saying, “Lift your eyes to Jesus and open your heart to Him”?“Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven and on the earth below. There is no other” (Deut. 4:39). He is always with us and all He has is ours. He will not fail us.Lesley Wilson