The After Christmas “No Money Blues”.
Luke 4:12 Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
Years ago, when I came to “know the Lord” as an adult or maybe it would be better to say; “When I had my ‘metanoia‘ experience”. I had some very immature ideas of my relationship with God. I needed to be “mature” in my Faith, as St. Paul refers to our Christianity [Eph. 4:13; Phi. 3:15; Heb. 5:14].
For example: I used to tell people that if I walked out in the middle of a busy street and expected God to protect me from danger He would. I would give that as an example of my Faith.This way of thinking is at least a very immature way of Faith… at worst it goes against Christianity [Lk. 4:12].
And so… we come back to the verse from The Gospel of St. Luke; ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
I recently shared with a friend that it would be wrong to expect God to ‘bail you out’ of an imprudent decision. I used the following scenario.
[What you are talking about is like someone going out in front of a speeding car and believing that God will protect them... THAT WOULD GO AGAINST THE VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE.
There would be no need to put yourself in danger.
Now, it would be different if you ran out into speeding traffic to save a child that is in the road and as you go, you ask God to help you... THAT WOULD BE BOTH LOVING, PRUDENT & COURAGEOUS.] (CCC 1808 FORTITUDE or COURAGE = It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause.)
I can easily see, as I hope, you the reader will also see, that one way of maturing in the Christian Faith is to grow in the Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude.
The following is an excerpt from a prayer of St. Thomas; “give me prudence to avoid the snares of the enemy”.
Prudence: “Its function is to point out which course of action is to be taken in any round of concrete circumstances.” (New Advent)
I ‘chalk up’ my ‘earlier’ way of thinking to my immaturity in The Catholic Faith. However… from the Scripture verse quoted, one can readily see that to think the way that I did (that being; unreasonably expecting God to protect someone from an imprudent decision), might actually be a temptation from Satan!
Let me now go to another scenario.
I occasionally have a Christian say something to me like; “I just spend my money and God gives it back to me”. (Many at Christmas do this). Hopefully, the reader can see where I am leading on this point.
Spending/handling money imprudently, is a temptation from Satan, not an act of Faith.
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