{"id":245,"date":"2013-08-23T15:41:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T21:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/?p=245"},"modified":"2013-08-23T15:41:55","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T21:41:55","slug":"do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We worship what we fear.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s God, that\u2019s a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He\u2019s God.<\/p>\n

But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question that may be helpful for you.<\/p>\n

Do you worship your next paycheck?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Think about this statement: \u201cI don\u2019t know where my next paycheck is coming from.\u201d Does it strike fear into your soul? Pity? Or joy at the possibility of an amazing opportunity?<\/p>\n

I found myself making that statement to myself a year ago, because, candidly, there was no next paycheck. I had discovered what Shakespeare and most people would call \u201cthe undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns\u2026.\u201d Some of you \u2014 maybe all of you at some point \u2014 have\u00a0been there before. In this period of sustained economic recession, you might even be there now.<\/p>\n

But what if God called you to walk away from your next payckeck or to accept a significantly smaller one to further His Kingdom purposes? Would you be OK with that?<\/p>\n

The Pink Slip on the Damascus Road<\/h3>\n

Consider the example of Paul, or\u00a0Saul, as he was called\u00a0at the time. God broke into his comfortable world on the road to Damascus.\u00a0\u201cSaul, whoever or\u00a0whatever you\u00a0think you\u2019re worshiping, it\u2019s not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a moment, Paul lost\u00a0everything\u00a0he had known \u2014 everything he had devoted himself to worship \u2014 including his next paycheck. But what a story he was freed to tell! The kind of story that\u00a0turns the world upside down.\u00a0(Acts 22)<\/a>\u00a0Now that\u2019s a story worth giving up a paycheck for, a story worth telling.<\/p>\n

When Faith Calls Us to Choose<\/h3>\n

Steven Pressfield says that\u00a0reality and humility are two of the most powerful forces we can face. But they\u2019re gifts, really. When we come to terms with the reality of our desperate place before God and reach a place of humility where we can say, \u201cNot my will, but thine be done\u201d \u2014 look out. All that is lacking then is the will to move forward in answer to the call, even if that means leaving the paycheck we once worshiped behind.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to say you will walk by faith when you\u2019re pretty certain the next paycheck is coming. When you know it\u2019s not, you come face-to-face with what you fear \u2014 and what you worship. You must choose.<\/p>\n

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.\u00a0(Matthew 6:24)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is in the middle of great uncertainty that we can finally get clarity on the One who is our true security:<\/p>\n

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure. ~ Mark Batterson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What about you? If you didn\u2019t care about your next paycheck, what would you be free to do? Listen closely to the answer you give to that question. Maybe it\u2019s\u00a0God speaking\u00a0through the fog of the ordinary to call you to something extraordinary.<\/p>\n

What about you? What\u00a0would you be free to do if\u00a0you no longer\u00a0feared losing your next paycheck? Share your thoughts with a comment below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We worship what we fear. If it\u2019s God, that\u2019s a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He\u2019s God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question that may be helpful for you. Do you worship your next paycheck? Think about this statement: \u201cI don\u2019t know where my next paycheck is coming from.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1084,"featured_media":248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[81,38,42,80,79,82],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rhemedia-films","tag-calling","tag-christian-financial-concepts","tag-christian-living","tag-next-paycheck","tag-paycheck","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Worship Your Next Paycheck?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We worship what we fear. If it's God, that's a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He's God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We worship what we fear. If it's God, that's a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He's God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ReImagine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-23T21:41:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/339\/2013\/08\/paycheck2.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"409\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Blankschaen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Blankschaen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/\",\"name\":\"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-23T21:41:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-23T21:41:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#\/schema\/person\/5560c0a98f542f838152bf4905b03dcb\"},\"description\":\"We worship what we fear. If it's God, that's a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He's God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/\",\"name\":\"ReImagine\",\"description\":\"A New Vision for an Ancient Faith\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#\/schema\/person\/5560c0a98f542f838152bf4905b03dcb\",\"name\":\"Bill Blankschaen\",\"description\":\"Bill Blankschaen is a writer, author, and speaker who empowers people to live an authentic life with abundant faith. A former pastor, Christian school leader, and master teacher, he is the founder of FaithWalkers (Faithwalkers.com) where he equips Christians to live an authentic life and a blogger on faith and cultural issues at Patheos and TheResurgent.com. He is the author of several books including A Story Worth Telling: Your Field Guide to Living an Authentic Life, What God Wants You to Do Next, The Secret to Explosive Personal Growth, and multiple collaborative books including his latest with co-author Erick Erickson \u2014 You Will Be Made to Care: The War on Faith, Family, and Your Freedom to Believe (Regnery, February 22, 2016). In addition to his own writing and speaking, Bill helps other people and organizations tell their own story in effective ways. He comes alongside authors as a collaborative writer, handcrafts engaging materials as a content creator, and creates an effective brand strategy as a platform developer with his team of creatives and digital technicians. (BillintheBlank.com)\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/FaithWalkersBlog.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/author\/billblankschaen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?","description":"We worship what we fear. If it's God, that's a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He's God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?","og_description":"We worship what we fear. If it's God, that's a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He's God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/","og_site_name":"ReImagine","article_published_time":"2013-08-23T21:41:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"409","height":"720","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/339\/2013\/08\/paycheck2.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Bill Blankschaen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bill Blankschaen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/","name":"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-08-23T21:41:55+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-23T21:41:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#\/schema\/person\/5560c0a98f542f838152bf4905b03dcb"},"description":"We worship what we fear. If it's God, that's a good thing. He should be\u00a0feared. He's God. But my own faith journey has forced me to ask myself\u00a0a question","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/2013\/08\/do-you-worship-your-next-paycheck\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do You Worship Your Next Paycheck?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/","name":"ReImagine","description":"A New Vision for an Ancient Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/#\/schema\/person\/5560c0a98f542f838152bf4905b03dcb","name":"Bill Blankschaen","description":"Bill Blankschaen is a writer, author, and speaker who empowers people to live an authentic life with abundant faith. A former pastor, Christian school leader, and master teacher, he is the founder of FaithWalkers (Faithwalkers.com) where he equips Christians to live an authentic life and a blogger on faith and cultural issues at Patheos and TheResurgent.com. He is the author of several books including A Story Worth Telling: Your Field Guide to Living an Authentic Life, What God Wants You to Do Next, The Secret to Explosive Personal Growth, and multiple collaborative books including his latest with co-author Erick Erickson \u2014 You Will Be Made to Care: The War on Faith, Family, and Your Freedom to Believe (Regnery, February 22, 2016). In addition to his own writing and speaking, Bill helps other people and organizations tell their own story in effective ways. He comes alongside authors as a collaborative writer, handcrafts engaging materials as a content creator, and creates an effective brand strategy as a platform developer with his team of creatives and digital technicians. (BillintheBlank.com)","sameAs":["http:\/\/FaithWalkersBlog.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/author\/billblankschaen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhemedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}