“But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good — to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.” -Jacob 2: 18-19
In our past quest for prosperity, we had immersed ourselves in typical books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale, as well as other media such as the movie The Secret.
In these, as in most wealth creation books and resources, is taught a powerful principle, which is that we must envision success and wealth before we achieve them. This is often termed as the “Law of Attraction.” We diligently applied this process as we worked to acquire material wealth.
But when we stared at the cold wall of failure, a question hit us like a rock on our forgetful heads: How many times had we exercised visualization to build the kingdom of God?
The answer, of course, was hardly ever. We weren’t bad people, but we were negligent. The desire to move God’s work forward had been present, but as an afterthought. The co-pilot of prosperity had wrested the helm from the pilot of serving God. We spent far less time thinking about God’s work than we did about investing, business, and prosperity. Kingdom-building had been subtly replaced by wealth-building.
We wondered how much more good we could have done in the world if we had applied the principle of visualization to building the kingdom of God, rather than our bank account primarily.
This divine focus applies to much more than visualization. We’ve been commanded to consecrate all that we are, all we have, and all we do to building God’s kingdom. In fact, it’s a condition of temple worthiness.
But what are the chances that earthly visions of material wealth in the present will be transformed into heavenly visions, desires, and actions in the future? The record speaks for itself — human beings have proven their distinct tendency toward forgetfulness, especially when we are blessed with material wealth (see Helaman chapter 12).
Our forgetful gene makes it imperative that we work and scheme and dream for the right reason from the very beginning, which is to build the kingdom of God. Even if we start out acquiring wealth for the right reasons, the chances are high that we’ll forget the source of our wealth and stray from the gospel path. And starting out for the wrong reasons increases the chance of our wandering down forbidden paths dramatically (see 1 Nephi 8: 28).
“The Lord has blessed us as a people with a prosperity unequaled in times past. The resources that have been placed in our power are good, and necessary to our work here on the earth. But I am afraid that many of us have been surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun to worship them as false gods, and they have power over us. Do we have more of these good things than our faith can stand? Many people spend most of their time working in the service of a self-image that includes sufficient money, stocks, bonds, investment portfolios, property, credit cards, furnishings, automobiles, and the like to guarantee carnal security throughout, it is hoped, a long and happy life. Forgotten is the fact that our assignment is to use these many resources in our families and quorums to build up the kingdom of God.” -Spencer W. Kimball
Seeking first the kingdom of God is by no means an either/or sacrifice — we’re not choosing between either being wealthy or serving God. The scriptures plainly teach that those who serve God are blessed both spiritually and temporally.
Ironically, those who focus primarily on wealth almost always lose either the wealth or their souls, if not both. Yet those who focus primarily on building the kingdom both keep a seat in the kingdom and enjoy prosperity.
“For the Lord God hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.” -2 Nephi 4: 4
Granted, our ability to serve is affected by our wealth, or lack thereof. As Marion G. Romney pointed out, “Money to assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse.” But this is just another way of saying to seek the kingdom of God first.
This thinking can be used as justification to pursue wealth for selfish reasons. We know because we did it — we rationalized that by being wealthy we would be in a better position to serve. The sentiment may be true and worthy, but our hearts weren’t truly aligned with it. We were telling ourselves that in order to avoid the hard truth that we were pursuing wealth for the wrong reasons.
The other side of the rationalization coin, however, is mediocrity and poverty in the name of righteousness. Humble circumstances may provide an ironic perch from which we look down on the wealthy. We tell ourselves that we would be wealthy, too, if we weren’t so righteous.
We develop a mindset of scarcity, however subconscious, that equates poverty with righteousness and wealth with wickedness. We forget that money is value neutral and that people give it value based on their righteousness, or lack thereof.
Jacob’s words are plain. Before we even begin to seek wealth, we should first seek the kingdom of God. Once we’ve obtained a hope in Christ, then we may seek wealth for the purpose of building the kingdom and serving our fellow men. This is how God’s work is moved forward and how we achieve eternal happiness.
Upcoming Articles: Use Money to Achieve Eternal Happiness & Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
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