What is the best way to defeat orphan thinking?
Several years ago in a professional setting, I noticed something interesting about one of my co-workers.
Every time a group of us met together, it was like this man stepped into the room expecting a fight. “You and I are going to be in an argument. One of us is going to win, and one of us is going to lose, and I am not going to be the loser.”
That is really strange, I thought. Why is that?
One fingerprint of a mammon spirit is a competitive attitude. Mammon is essentially the love of money personified, and it wants to win. It must win, whatever the situation.
A poverty spirit invites people into a victim position: “What I want is hopeless. I’m going to lose anyway, so I’ll just let it happen.”
A mammon spirit invites people into a villain position: “I refuse to be the loser. I am going to win every time I come to this meeting. I am going to crush you and come out on top. You’ll see.”
The victim and the villain are different aspects of orphan thinking.
Mammon and poverty tend to work together. They can overlap. The devil doesn’t care which side of the tightrope we fall off of—he just wants us involved in one side or the other.
If we swear off poverty and run the opposite direction, we will wind up at mammon. “I hate poverty! I’m going to do everything I can to kick and claw my way out of this hole. I need money—I must have money—and I will do whatever it takes to win.”
If we recognize the dangers of mammon and run the opposite direction, we will wind up at poverty. “Money is going to ruin me. I have made bad financial decisions, and I am guilty.”
The solution to mammon and poverty cannot be just “doing the opposite,” because the opposite will push us into the arms of the other negative force.
Instead, we need to get off the tightrope altogether and choose something entirely different. “I am not going to go the opposite direction of poverty, or I’ll walk into mammon. I am not going to walk in the opposite direction of mammon, or I’ll walk into poverty. I need an alternative.”
That is the emergence of the hero.
Our role model for the hero position is Jesus. He is not part of the victim/villain debate. Instead, He is the alternative who can show us what real truth is. I am amazed, and I continue to be amazed, at how incredible Jesus is.
How do we strike a fatal blow against orphan thinking?
If you want to uproot orphan thinking in your life, the most effective thing you can do is go after your identity in Christ.
1. Really start to understand what it means to be fathered by God.
2. What does it mean for God to be your Protector?
3. What does it mean for God to be your Provider?
4. What does it mean for God to be your Identity Giver? He, not the world, is the One who gives you your name.
When you go after your identity in Jesus and really win that battle, you haven’t just wrestled down poverty or mammon—you have supplanted them. You’ve climbed down off the tightrope and walked to the alternative, which is Jesus.
If you need help learning who you are in Jesus and erasing orphan thinking in your life, let’s set up a Financial Sozo together. This topic is my toy box—I love helping people figure out how to build financial health and healing. The solution to every financial problem on the planet is in the spirit of adoption, where we learn to see ourselves as children of God.
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Lean into your adoption as a child of God.
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