Proud, Stubborn Frugality

Frugality and responsibility are traits that are admired by a certain class of people: namely, the frugal and responsible. What do all the rest of us think? Well, probably a whole range of things. But frugality and responsibility mean the most to those who are embracing those things, and who are practicing them. 

Maybe these disciplined misers have taken a Dave Ramsey course. Maybe they grew up poor. Maybe they made a mess of things through undisciplined living and are now living in reaction to their former life. But there are no sweeter words to them than “frugality” and “responsibility.”

I think, as an aside, this could apply to other words. There are some who read their Bibles and pray for holiness who aspire to be “blameless” and “upright.” Those words mean a lot to them. To others, not so much.

These are not just options. They are options with consequences. Both responsibility and righteousness can bear pleasant fruit;  and their absence will eventually wreak havoc.

But frugality with God, and frugality in asking things from God, is wrong. That’s right, even for you Ramsey disciples: such frugality is wrong. Why? Because God delights to give. In fact, because of our inability to produce any good thing ourselves, we are absolutely dependent upon His giving, and a distorted (un)spiritual frugality as applied to our prayer lives will have its own negative consequence.

Think of it like this: you have a trust fund that has been set up for you, not to take care of your future, but to take care of your present. But you, being frugal and responsible, want to take care of things yourself. You want to stand on your own two feet. You can solve your own problems. So you refuse to withdraw from the trust fund.

And what happens? Well, you live for a winter without a furnace because you don’t have the money. And your car gets towed, and you are late on payments. You begin to get phone calls from debt collectors. And all the time, there is Someone who wants to give - in fact, has already given - and you stubbornly refuse. Why? Because you want to do things yourself. Because you refuse to simply request. And as applied to the stubborn, foolish Christian, you refuse to “let your requests be made known to God.”