Day Six: What Money Reveals About People

Do you believe that having more money will fulfill your desires and solve most of your personal and business problems? Money is worshipped by people for what they believe it can do for them and because they have the notion it will make them “free.” Whatever you make the primary source of power in your life becomes your god. Small wonder that loving money is the root of all evil; it violates God’s first commandment of having no other gods before Him.

God gets our attention in many ways. Near the top of the list are money problems. Money not only talks, but it sometimes shouts! God uses money to teach us about Himself, help us recognize Him as our ultimate Source and Problem Solver, and enable us to better our management skills.

I no longer believe in “money problems.” I do believe we can have problems with money, but since I began to realize how God uses money in our lives, it has changed my perspective. When money appears to be the issue, I remember that God literally has all resources available to Him. If He has not released what I think I need, I must ask myself some questions:

• Is God drawing attention to a moral sin in my life?
• Are greed or materialism my motivation?
• Are my projects and goals in His will and timing?
• Is God trying to protect me from something?
• Have I developed the maturity and skills needed to steward expansion?
• Am I in danger of utilizing unbiblical means or partnering with unethical people to accomplish my goals?
• Am I trying to control things rather than place my trust in God?

Money is time in foldable form. In other words, it is a unit of man’s energy expended over time to secure or produce a service or product. To spend money is to spend our time—our most valuable asset. Money is a unique reminder of our limitations here on earth. When we spend money, we are making choices about how we want to use the work units that produced this money. It represents struggles, pressures, time away from family, days closer to death, and so forth. Spending money is spending time and establishing priorities.

Like a wise financial manager, a mature Christian steward knows that money is not the solution to every problem. They see it as a tool and understand that God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack His funding. Hence, the steward can respect and use money, but he will never love it or see it as an end in itself. He will not willingly sell his future and freedom for it (like the incessant borrower who becomes the lender’s slave) nor avoid it altogether out of fear (like the wicked, lazy, unprofitable servants in the parables of the talents and minas). (See Matthew 25:24–30; Luke 19:20–27.) Similar to the wise servants of these parables, Christian stewards invest money wisely to produce a profit for Almighty & Family.

Do you want God’s blessing? Let Him show you that He pays for what He orders, mostly by creatively leveraging resources in you or those around you through hard work and sacrifice.

Thought of the Day: God pays for what He orders. Spending money is spending time and establishing priorities.