Devotions & Reflections for WomenExemplo

Your Money: Yours to Manage

The financially confident woman knows that money is for managing first and spending second.

This isn’t just another reminder that “it’s all God’s money.” Of course, money does originate from God’s hand. However, practically speaking, he has put you in charge of a certain amount of it. In that sense, your money is your money to manage. And God expects you to use it well and not to abuse your responsibilities.

The Old Testament tells how the Israelites gave offerings to God out of the abundance he’d given them. Additionally, two-thirds of Jesus’ parables are about money and financial management.

In one of Jesus’ parables in the New Testament, he likened spiritual faithfulness to being a responsible manager or steward of funds (see Matthew 25:14 ñ 30). In this story, only two of three managers graduated from God’s Business School with their MBAs. (The other flunked out.)

One of the prerequisite “courses” in this prestigious university underlines the principle that money is for managing first and spending second. The difference between the two is the difference between the financially foolish and financially confident woman.

The foolish woman imagines having her own money means fine living and gratifying her indulgences.

• So, she lives beyond her means.
• She confuses desires with needs.
• She loses sleep over unpaid debts.
• She wonders where all the fun associated with having her own money has gone.

In contrast, the financially confident woman recognizes God as the source of her money.

• She has a sound plan for the amount divinely allotted to her.
• She knows she cannot afford to keep all her money, so she gives generously.
• Out of what is left, she pays herself first, saving aggressively.
• Then, she is free to spend her money within the boundaries she has established.
• She knows the secret to enjoying life’s pleasures is not living on credit or paycheck to paycheck; rather, she is in control of her money, not the other way around. The financially confident woman forgoes temptations to spend her money today, and by doing so she manages to be good to herself tomorrow.

When we graduate from God’s Business School, we will have our MBA in Biblical financial principles -- rules to live by that honor us as intelligent women, who are respected managers of God’s money.

Reflect

Would you describe yourself as a financially confident woman?