Money Life: Understanding God's View of Moneyनमुना

Our Hope - Part 1

Financial problems typically do not develop overnight and, unfortunately, neither are they solved that way.

While many people may have similar goals—freedom from debt, control of their spending, saving for the unexpected, investing for the future—each person will have unique challenges.

For some, a short-term victory is just getting through this month’s stack of bills. For others, it will be overcoming a financial surprise like a broken water heater, a car in need of repair or sudden loss of employment. Others will be looking for ways to invest for the future and give more generously to God’s kingdom.

Financial troubles can feel like a prison. It can seem that you’re on your own with no end in sight to the struggles you’re facing. It’s during these difficult times that we must believe God will do what He said He will do, even when our circumstances overwhelm us. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV), and so it’s during the stressful periods of life, when we can’t see clearly, that we must look to God and His promises all the more fervently.

There is temptation during difficulties to assume there’s nothing worthwhile to be gained in our struggles. We can behave as if a financial challenge or other hardship in life is an interruption, rather than a God-ordained path He has given us to walk through. But the Bible says that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4).

Suffering … Endurance … Character … Hope.

There it is—when we persevere in faith, God uses our struggles to develop our character and set our hope firmly in Him.

Think about that; our God is so big and so gracious that He can even use our sin and rebellion to bring about good! No matter our financial situation or the mistakes we’ve made in the past, God is able to turn things around.

Our hope doesn’t depend on the state of our nation’s economy or on a quick fix to our financial pain, and it certainly doesn’t lie in ourselves. Our hope rests in our great God!

As you read today’s verses, consider choosing one to memorize. Write it down and keep it with you!