Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying, “money isn’t everything but it ranks up there with oxygen.”
Nearly everything we want, need, desire, and dream of requires money. Money makes the world go ‘round more than love does! When we struggle financially, it seems to affect every other area of our lives.
We can provide scriptural evidence that money is important to God, the kingdom of God, and His people in general. There are approximately 2000 scriptures about money and possessions in the Bible, indicating its importance. Many of these scriptures speak to God’s generous nature and desire to meet the needs of His people.
So why do so many good people, who love God, struggle with financial hardship, as if their money is swept away with the current of life. Many people who I personally know are barely getting by, and some are not even close to being able to pay their bills. As much as we want to point a finger, the struggle “ultimately” can’t be blamed on politics, the times we are living in, or any other number of things that contribute to our financial frustrations. Before you stop reading, I’ll address this statement a little later in more detail.
Perhaps you are struggling right now with a financial hardhship. I’d like to simply point out three things to ponder that I hope will help. Actually, I have three questions to ask. This will certainly not be an exhaustive study on the topic, but I believe it might help realign our vision, thoughts and actions that can prepare us for increase!
First of all; do we believe God wants us to prosper and have our needs and even desires met? If we are going to pray for financial blessing and trust God to meet our needs, we must believe that it is God’s will, otherwise we can’t ask in faith. Scripture assures us that, “My God shall supply all of your needs, according to His riches in Glory, by Christ Jesus.” We are also told to, “Remember the Lord thy God, for it’s He that gives us the power to attain wealth, so that his covenant can be established in the earth.” The Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers!”
I encourage you to google scriptures that speak about God’s will regarding finances, to create your own beliefs and build your faith regarding this topic. This is important! I don’t just want you to take my word for it. We all “live out of” the beliefs of our heart. That’s why you and I are instructed to “guard your heart with all diligence, because out of it flow all the issues of life!” Unhealthy and unscriptural beliefs lead to unhealthy issues. Money issues come from what we hold to be true about money!
Next - Are we looking to God as our source, or a job as our source. This is an area where we seem to get our eyes off of the abundance of God and onto other things. We stop trusting in the Lord and start leaning to our understanding, or what we can see, and hear!. Trusting in our job can only offer limited security and comfort but not true peace, because it’s a temporary situation. It can change without notice. God never changes! He is always the same. Sure, we are expected to work a job, or be self employed. But our job should be viewed as an avenue, not our source. If God can provide a widow in the Bible with enough oil to sell, and then live for the rest of her life - and if God can provide a prophet with food, brought to him by ravens in his time if need, God can provide for us in untypical ways also! When we look to someone or something else as our source, our faith and the supply becomes limited. When we view God as our source, he meets our needs “according to His riches in glory” (Phil. 4:19), not according to one avenue. As our source, He creates other avenues to help us from. There have been times I’ve received an unexpected check in the mail. There have been times when a gift from someone was given with the reason from the giver that “they felt like they (or God) wanted to bless me!” I don’t know about you, but I want a financial source with unlimited avenues, not an avenue as my source that has its built in limits.
God’s economic plan is not attached to the U.S. treasury. He is not affected by inflation. I believe he cares about the decisions made by whoever is in the White House, but if we are looking to God as our source and not other men, or the economic indicators, we can live from the supernatural flow of His kingdom! Jesus prayed that “God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is not suffering financial hardships! After all, the streets are made of gold!
Finally, How stingy or generous are we, especially when things get tight financially? The golden rule applies all the time, not just when we feel like we have the most to offer. Sowing seeds into the lives of others can look like a lot of different things. We are encouraged to be friendly when we need a friend. We are also encouraged to give financially to the need of others when we ourselves have needs. Proverbs tells us that, “One gives freely and grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.” We are also instructed in Proverbs 11 that, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.”
The kingdom of God way of doing things does not always make sense, nor agree with the world’s philosophy. God sees our kindness and “doing unto others” as seeds that will bring us a harvest of the things we have sown. Giving to others, especially when we have a need that we don’t know how it will be met, opens another avenue for God to bless us with. Jesus’ own words in red are, “Give and it will be given back to, good measure, pressed down and shaken together, will be poured into your lap!”
God wants to bless us! He wants to be our source who can bless us through many avenues. He wants our trust placed in Him more than any other person or thing. He also wants to use our unselfish generosity towards others, to create an avenue in which he can bring his provision back around to us.
Be well!