For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.
Help, Hope, and Insight (part of Crown Financial Ministries) suggests eight ways God uses money and four ways He does not as follows, starting with the ways he does use it:
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God uses money to strengthen our trust in Him.
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God uses money to develop our trustworthiness.
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God uses money to prove His love.
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God uses money to demonstrate His faithfulness.
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God uses money to unite Christians in blessings.
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God uses money to provide direction.
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God uses money to cultivate self-control.
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God uses money to clarify spiritual maturity.
Now the four ways he does not use it:
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God never uses money to worry us.
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God never uses money to corrupt us.
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God never uses money to build egos.
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God never allows money to satisfy our personal whims or desires.
They provide their reasoning for listing each of these, so if you're interested, check out the article for yourself.
In my life the one issue I see come up again and again is #2 in the first list: God uses money to develop our trustworthiness.
In supporting the point above, the article notes that the Bible says "whoever can be trusted with very little, can also be trusted with much." (Luke 16:10) Just like we don't give a five-year-old $1,000 and turn him loose in a toy store but instead trust our kids with a little bit more over time as they prove they can handle it appropriately, God does this with us -- or at least He's done so in my life. If I had the salary and net worth when I was 20 that I have today, I KNOW I would have blown most of it. But through the years I've gotten better and better at handling the little bit extra that I received, and thus I was blessed with more.
Maybe this is one reason lottery winners often lose it all -- they haven't proven faithful with a little, so when they are trusted with a HUGE amount, it all evaporates quickly. It's a phenomenon I've seen happen again and again.
Obviously wisdom and maturity are big parts of the process. As we learn more over time and start to apply what we know, we become better at handling what we have. And it seems like it's just when we learn something new that God goes and provides a bit more finances for us to test our newfound principles.
Is this making sense to anyone or am I just rambling? Maybe I'm simply talking to myself?
God uses money to prove His love.
Yikes! So God doesn't love poor people, huh? Good to know.
Posted by: Sarah | April 19, 2009 at 11:35 AM
God uses money to prove His love. From the Crown Website - Scripture tells us that God assumes the responsibility of providing the basic necessities for everyone who trusts in Him (Matthew 7:11 - If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!). By transferring all money to Him, He often uses money to meet those necessities of life.
Posted by: BobV | April 19, 2009 at 02:11 PM
Sarah --
You may actually want to click through to the article and read the details before you make false comments/assumptions like that.
Posted by: FMF | April 19, 2009 at 03:02 PM
"God uses money to demonstrate His faithfulness" - I don't agree with you!!
Posted by: Steve | April 20, 2009 at 03:46 AM
It's been proven in my and though it is not popular opinion I'll post it here for those who wish to contemplate it: Poor people are the result of poor decisions. Wise men can't be poor simply because they don't make poor choices.
2 + 2 = 4, and 4 - 2 = 2
Our financial life is not an accident, but the sum total of our financial choices, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
Posted by: CW | April 20, 2009 at 12:09 PM
I'm just trying to recover by the fact that God uses money in general... I would assume he would smite everyone who didn't give him what he wanted.
We are talking about the God from the old testament right?
Posted by: Daniel | April 20, 2009 at 12:26 PM
"Wise men can't be poor?"
Holy cow. I guess every single member of an order who's taken a vow of poverty is a fool, then!
FMF: you provided the bullet point. If you think it's misleading, perhaps you'd better revise it?
Posted by: Sarah | April 20, 2009 at 01:52 PM
Sarah --
It's not misleading. You're taking a portion of the piece and twisting it to fit your biased view. What you're doing is fairly transparent.
If you REALLY want to see what the piece says, click through and read it. If you don't then you can comment on what I say -- which is much more detailed.
Posted by: FMF | April 20, 2009 at 01:55 PM
I agree with Sarah, the argument that God uses money to prove his love doesn't make any sense. There's no logic in this argument, no real proof to my opinion, but I guess that's faith.
Posted by: Boris | April 23, 2009 at 05:28 AM