Well, it’s too late to celebrate it this year but according to the National Day Calendar, the day after Thanksgiving – Friday, November 28th, 2025 – is usually known as Black Friday. Pre-COVID, this was quite an event requiring staging and strategy to get the best deals. COVID changed our world in ways we could have never imagined and Black Friday events have nearly become a thing of the past. Instead, Black Friday has gone digital with companies turning to social media and other electronic ways to get shoppers to buy online. In fact, Black Friday sales have been available all throughout this month.
National Day Calendar offers up another celebration. We could call it the Anti Black Friday event. It’s called National Buy Nothing Day, a protest against consumerism and materialism. Truthfully, I can see both sides of this issue and why people take sides.
There is no question that America is driven by consumerism. That is a GOOD thing that can digress quickly into a BAD thing. We are a nation that is over $38 trillion in debt. Lots of fingers get pointed at Washington, D.C. as politicians are ridiculed for money mismanagement. But, these spend-thrift public servants were elected by an equally guilty public.
“Collectively, credit card balances rose by $24 billion in the third quarter to $1.23 trillion — up 5.75% from a year earlier to a fresh all-time high, according to a new report on household debt by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Wednesday (11/5/25).
“The average credit card balance per consumer now stands at $6,523, up 2.2% year over year, a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion also found.”1 That’s the downside.
The upside is that if you are a smart shopper, this is the time to buy certain items because the deals are incredible. Some stores offer over 50% off merchandise and even include free shipping. Carefully watching the ads and buying at the right time is just good, smart, and wise stewardship. And, when we don’t even have to go into a store, it doesn’t get much better than that.
There are several directions in which I could take this devotional but probably the most wide-sweeping application would be this. How much of our money belongs to God? Many of us would pipe up immediately and say, “The tithe.” We aren’t wrong based on several passages of Scripture. We might add the word “offering” to the tithe which would be
anything above and beyond the tithe. However, these still don’t answer the question accurately.
Psalms 24:1 reminds us that “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” And Psalms 50:12 says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” So, the correct answer to the question is that EVERYTHING belongs to the Lord, 100%, and that includes 100% of our money. Now, stick with me on this.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 gives an important principle. “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. (2) Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” A steward is never an owner, only a caretaker. Staying in context, the “stewardship” spoken of here is in regards to how Paul dispersed the “mysteries of God.” Those entrusted with the ministry of sharing the mysteries of God need to be found faithful.
An application can be made, though, to the fact that those who are entrusted with ANYTHING that belongs to God are merely stewards, never owners, and they need to be faithfully handling that which has been given to them. If 100% of what we allegedly own rightfully belongs to the Lord and we know that He gave it to us, then we have no right to whimsically spend God’s money.
Does this mean we should shun Black Friday and all the sales? No. Does that mean we should go hog wild and buy, buy, buy? No. It means we should pray before we spend His money and seek His will and direction.
Don’t you think God knows what we really need and where the best deals are located? Seems that it’s a wise thing to pray before we shop.
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 4:2)
1https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/05/consumer-debt-rises-amid-worsening-k-shaped-economic-divide.html?msockid=165c60c0e1696dfe045d765be0ef6c6d
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