Financial FitnessSample

God’s Reward for Wise Money Management

By Rick Warren

Money is the acid test of your faithfulness. God uses it more than any other thing in your life to test your faith. Why? Because it’s the thing we have the hardest time with.

Look at the rewards that God gives for wise money management: “[The] Master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21 NIV)

The law of compensation is this: God will reward you for good money management. There are three steps to this reward based on Matthew 25:21: affirmation, promotion, and celebration.

God affirms you by saying, “Good job! I was testing you to see if you could be trusted with what I gave you, and you passed the test. Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The second step is promotion. As you show faithfulness with a few things, God will give you greater responsibility.

And, as you show your responsibility, God will celebrate with you. You will share in God’s happiness!

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

Notice he doesn’t say you should not serve God and money. He says you can’t. It’s impossible. Nobody can serve two masters. So you’re going to have to decide what will be number one in your life, God or making money.

Money is a terrific servant, but it is a terrible master. When it masters you, you’re always under stress. You’re always worried. You’re always uptight about it. When you are the master of your money, when it is your servant, it serves you. When money works for you instead of you working for your money, then you have peace.

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