Money Matters: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

Introduction

Funny thing: the two topics that arouse the most passion in people ironically are the two topics that the church has the hardest time talking about. Isn’t that odd? ’Tis said that sex and money make the world go ’round, and not just the world of non-Christians. Believers need to be wise about sex and money too.

What makes it so hard to talk about these things in church? Well, let me tell you from personal experience that it is hard to talk about human sexuality in more than a very general way when there are lots of children around.

Money talk is hard for different reasons. St. Paul told Timothy long ago that opportunists found that religion could be a means to financial gain. The church has always been plagued by religious hustlers, a powerful turnoff to inquirers, visitors and new believers. Money talk often happens in terms of institutional needs (“the congregation is running a deficit and needs you to pony up so we can keep the lights on”) instead of in worship terms.

Perhaps the biggest cause of pew resistance to money talk is that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “the wallet is the last part of a person to be converted. It costs you nothing to shout Hallelujah!” But if you give God some of your money, then you think you have less to spend on yourself.

The Bible has plenty to say about sex and even more about money matters. The book of Proverbs, in particular, is a goldmine of wisdom about gold. I think you’ll be surprised by some of the insights.