Understanding Financial StewardshipSample

The Place of Money in Your Life

What’s the place of money in your life? Do you have a balanced view, exercising godly wisdom and care with your material goods and gains? Or are you haphazard and careless with what the Lord’s entrusted to you?

There are four positions that people hold toward money:

1. Idolatry—For some people, money becomes central to their lives. They devote most of their time, energy, and attention to its gain and use. They regard money as the key to having power and prestige. Since an idol is anything you place above God in your heart and mind—anything you trust in more than Him—when you leave God out of your financial life, you’re in grave danger of making money your idol (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

2. Envy—Another position people often have toward money is the sin of envy. They compare what they have with what others have and believe they come up lacking or have been cheated in some way. But God’s Word is very clear on what envy can do to a body (Prov. 14:30)—and the same can be applied to envying the wealth and material possessions of others.

3. Greed—Both idolatry and envy can easily result in greed … an insatiable desire for more. It’s a void in a person’s life that only God can fill, and no amount of money or possessions will satisfy the longing that can only be found in Him.

4. Neutrality—The final position people hold is neutral. This is the wisest position. A $20 bill can be used to buy a bottle of booze (which can help lead to a ruined life), or it can be used to buy a Bible for a person who doesn’t know the Lord (which can help lead to eternal life). The $20 bill by itself has no morality associated with it. It’s the attitude toward our money and what we do with it that counts.

As you take an honest look and evaluate your position on money and material gains, remember God is far more concerned about your attitudes and desires toward money than He is with your starting or ending balance. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Gal. 6:7-8).