WHEN GRACE AND BEAUTY IS JUST IN NAMES (PART 2)

Acts 5:1-2 “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

Madam Sapphira would have been spared a terrible judgement that practically wiped off her family like a spiritual hurricane if not for these words:  “his wife being privy to it” (Acts 5:2). Except on very few and rare occasions, humans are generally very secretive even with those close to them on how they generate and spend money. The idea of common purse and joint spending are considered too rigid and difficult to practice in many homes. Men are not alone in this, women are generally guilty as well, only very few women are open and transparent when it comes to money and one can understand the reason in most cases. Many men have been known to be bad managers of family resources, especially in homes where the family financial burden fall on the woman’s shoulders. Very few men are transparent and trusting enough for their wives to commit her all to him for keep and prudent use.

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). Financial transparency is a major problem in many homes, husband and wife treat each other with mutual suspicion when it comes to money. Many married people have no problem being naked in front of their spouses, yet can afford to have secret investments and bank accounts which their spouses and children are unaware of. There have been cases of banks and financial managers profiting from abandoned dead persons accounts because family members are unaware of the existence of such bank accounts and investments. They were secret treasures known only to the deceased owners and unfaithful bank managers. There was a story of some bank executives who threw a big party when they heard of the sudden demise of a top government official in their area. The said official had an account running into several millions, with fake pictures and names in a dubious arrangement between the corrupt state official and few senior bank staff and when death came unannounced, the money automatically became that of the bank staff who were the only ones privy to it.

Understandably, that was for a corrupt public official and there are quite a good number of them all around the world. But, there are men and women like that, many so called Christians, who are so secretive and so untrusting.  They cannot be trusted and they trust no one as well, not even their own children. Many have passed on suddenly like that, leaving their families in poverty and pains, yet they had investments and unknown robust accounts here and there which their families are unaware of. Of what use is an investment or money kept in secret accounts to the family of a deceased person and to himself. Vanity upon vanity.

Many women will gladly give themselves to the men they are in love with, but won’t share their investment secrets with the same men. A man that does not deserve to know your financial worth is not worth lying on your back for. You are a better treasure to be preserved than some ATM cards with an expiry date written on them. Some people are good lovers as long as money issue is kept minimal. Keeping your paying voucher, salary slips and details of your financial worth in the secret lockers of your office so your wife/husband and children won’t know your worth and official status seem like a step taken too far. It is just unthinkable that spouses prefer their siblings to their partners as next of kin in filling official personal documents that promises financial benefits. These are practices that are expected from persons and families where Jesus Christ has no right to rule and we can understand their plights and shrewdness since they are married to persons who have no business with going to heaven. But for praying parents, God expects more from us than is currently obtainable.

STEAL TO IMPRESS

The world is filled with stories of betrayals and unfaithfulness in financial matters, and we allow these stories and experiences to govern our perceptions and the way we treat each other in financial matters, forgetting that the Spirit that works in us is different from the spirit that works in the families outside the corridor of grace. Transparency and honesty are Christian virtues expected of us to each other. The world may abhor these virtues but God’s expectations from us are unchanging. Ananias and Sapphira might have acted selfishly against God but at least they were both privy to their family finance and agreed on it. God never condemned the financial transparency in that family, He only frowned at and judged their lies, deceptions and manipulative tendency that was capable of jeopardizing the newly inaugurated church paid dearly for with the Blood of Jesus Christ, not many days before that day in particular.

Men have been known to steal to impress women, husbands have been known to betray public trust and squander public funds just to keep up the status expected of them by overbearing wives. She doesn’t have to talk or make demands before putting pressure on the man to do more, even if it means stealing. Her body language, careless emphasis and direction of talks, will do the magic. More than that, the woman’s lack of interest on how the money flows in makes her the force behind the scene.

You must have heard it said that, behind every successful man is a woman. Same is also true for every “successful” robber, kidnapper, wicked and covetous politician, public looter and chief executive in offices, who misappropriates public funds. Behind every Ananias is a Sapphira. A Sapphira who was privy to the ungodly ways the spouse generated his/her money but chose to look the other way. They are simply uninterested in how the money is made, they are totally unconcerned about families that may have been robbed and their pains as long as their own family cash flow is not affected. When your spouse brings home some new gadgets and you care less about how the money for it was sourced, your family is building a new house or you have a new car added to the family’s fleet and you just flow along with the tide of “God’s blessings” being totally uninterested in the manner the manna falls on your family, or when your spouse’s monthly spending is rocket high away from his/her monthly salary and you are so unconcerned as per where the difference is coming from, you might be inadvertently walking the Sapphira way.

KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS

When Paul, who was Saul, encountered Jesus on the way to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, he was going to do something impossible to accomplish, which in his blind zeal had been his life pursuit and to which he had no answer in verse 5, “…And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Financial fraudulence especially when the other person is privy to and approves of it, buried and kept as a family secret without the fruit of repentance is like kicking against the pricks (thorns) with bare feet. Using official position as a revenue collector to illegally enrich oneself with the hard earned money of the citizens is like deliberately setting fire in one’s skirt and still expect no injury from the act. How can someone illegally appropriate money meant for the collective welfare of many to himself alone and still go home to sleep and expect to enjoy good health many years later while families of subordinates suffer damages beyond repairs. Such a fellow should not expect that all will be well despite the wickedness that has been done and families so robbed perish under the heavy burden of unpaid school fees and sundry bills.

No one can expect to lives in mansions and rides in luxurious cars, oppressing the same people he has robbed to provide comfort for his own children should hope to see the children grow up to be great. That’s directly against the scriptures that says “…the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned” (Isaiah 14:20). God has a way of visiting the wicked; their health and the happiness of their children and family after them always share in their troubles, especially when the children have not found Christ and so live a life different from those of their parents. These are the genesis of some terrible family patterns, sicknesses that are difficult to explain, health challenges that defy medical science, some rare forms of deformation in children, hardluck and even deaths in some cases.

FIGHT FOR YOUR CHILDREN

Many people don’t like being censored as per the way and manner they source or manage their finance and resources. You must have heard people say business apart, Bible apart, especially when they are trying to defend business deals they know contravene their Christian professions. Men especially frown at their spouses when the latter is showing too much interest in the way they get or spend their money, but good and godly men cherish women who are sincerely interested in their financial well-being. Men know women are better managers of money and will willingly commit it to their wives safe hands and assistance once trust and love is unquestioned.

Once your partner notices your interest in his/her financial matter tends towards your personal goals and self-motivated reasons, then financial secrecy cannot be found wanting. The devil is smart, he will sometimes push opportunities into one’s way but with the intent of destroying the family and or children at a later date or years later when he would have had a valid legal ground to work in and walk through the family unhindered. Where there is financial transparency and potential opportunities are discussed by those concerned as a family in an atmosphere of sincerity and love, giving no space for self and personal ambitions over family wellness, with prayers and carefulness, the enemy’s hidden motive can be uncovered readily by a united couple thereby beating the enemy to it in his own game with the help of the Spirit of Grace.

You don’t have to have a 100% insight into the financial activities of your spouse but you don’t have to be in total darkness as well. You don’t have to closely monitor your spouse’s every move, yet, you don’t have to desist from asking questions when and where the need arises for the sake of your children. When you probe your spouse into telling or explaining provisions that are sudden and need to be explained, it shows you care about the spiritual implications of reckless behaviors on the future of your family and your children. When a man or a woman court trouble outside his home, by the time it comes visiting, all family members will suspend their lives to attend to it. A desire for financial transparency is a fight for you and for your children. “I don’t know how he got his money and he won’t tell me” is a weak excuse when the rewards of sharp practices come visiting the house.

Sapphira knew her husband was in the wrong, just as many spouses know their partners are abusing official trusts, and she did not betray the fact that she was privy to the money her husband kept back, even though he claimed the one he declared was the official figure. There is a great possibility Ananias wouldn’t have gone ahead with his plan if the wife had objected very strongly to it. And if he did, at least her own life would have been spared. Many men and women who abuse official trusts and steal from public purse are most likely to stop once they know that their husbands/wives will raise probing questions and where answers are unsatisfactory, strong objections will be expected. Children with parents who are unassuming know they have questions to answer when money, fame and wealth become sudden and suspicious but those whose parents are like devouring fire who will never say enough to expensive gifts, will go deeper into the art of self-destruction.

GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT

Monitoring can be difficult in a harsh and unsupportive economy, honesty is like foolishness when everybody is doing it. However, God’s expectations from us as Praying Parents cannot be overemphasized and for sure, we care differently about the future of our children. For us, we are so careful not to jeopardize the future of our children, the peace in our homes, the blessings of our God and His promises for our homes just for temporal benefits that run with added sorrows. Job 14:1 says “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Every one born into the world has a portion of life’s battle allotted to him/her and godly and careful parents won’t love to add more woes to an already difficult battle for the children just for a little more selfish gain. Money indeed is a mammon, unrighteous mammon (Luke16:11), those given to its lust cannot be satisfied with it as it is written “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

Whatever the choice we make, there is always a remnant of it, little or much, kept for the children. Whatever we are today, is in some way the result of who our parents were, there is a part of them in us, and for sure some part of us will wait for our children as well but the earlier we seek the path of truth in repentance, the earlier we turn away the judgement on sin and wickedness. The financial corruption and lies that swept Ananias and his family was not Sapphira’s original idea, just as the idea to eat the forbidden fruit was not originally from Adam, but that both partners were privy to it and failed to arrest it as at when due cost them their destinies. It will be difficult for one to claim ignorance when one’s spouse is guilty of financial impropriety and when money is spent as if an entire nation patronizes only one’s spouse’s line of businesses. Please ask questions where you must, and this should be done prayerfully and with respect in the spirit of humility. An already guilt battered man/woman is a depressed soul in need of help, a self-righteous act that is not well directed can throw him or her off balance. That’s not good for anyone.

Sapphira is a classic example of a bad wife, who cared less about how the husband make money or looked the other way when she discovered the family wealth is stained with blood and unrewarded sweats of subordinates at work. Her husband is a financial cheat, yet she care less, as long as her demand is being met and her position is not threatened. All that matters to her is that the flow of income never stop and there is enough money to fuel her pride, self and vain glory, and pervasive fashion appeal. The crime world is male dominated but the undaunted supports of greedy women keep the fire of crime burning beyond the reach of those given to it. Men are much likely to cease from evil when they know they won’t have the support of the women in their lives, especially their mothers and wives and I think this is also true of women as well.

May God speak more to your hearts on this in Jesus Name. Amen.