Jonathots Daily Blog
(3002)
How does faith and God play a role in finances?
God is like hamburger. Everybody thinks they know the way he/it should be served.
So some people think God hates money. Others insist that if God loves you, He gives you cash. And of course, you have a large number of the human population who think that removing desire is the best way to find God.
I preface with this because I’m going to share with you my beliefs about money as I have derived them from my faith in Jesus.
Jesus did not agree with much of anything that preceded him–especially in the realm of human motivation:
- He was much too practical for the Jews.
- He was much too thoughtful for the Romans.
- And much too plain for the Greeks.
Jesus’ teaching on finance and how it relates to everyday life had three components:
1. Count the cost.
Yes–sit down, add up what you spend, add up what you make and see if there’s any way to get close.
It’s not really budgeting–it’s not sticking money in envelopes, hoping the dollar bills will stretch. It is just a simple process of admitting to yourself, “This is what I spend and this is what I make.”
And don’t lie about it. If you need $50 a week for dinner and a movie, write it down.
Never come to God with a request that you have not first run through common sense.
2. Multiply your talents.
Once you’ve discovered the discrepancy between what you spend and what you owe, instead of growing frustrated with being cheated, or cheating yourself to the point of frustration, look at the talent you have. See if it has the capacity for increasing your finance.
Maybe you could start a cottage industry out of your home to pull in a little extra dough.
You should make sure your output at work is 15-20% above your fellow-workers, so when you want that raise, you have a justifiable case, and if a promotion becomes available, your qualifications shoot you to the top of the pile.
Sometimes it’s finding things you don’t need and getting rid of them.
But Jesus insisted that the victory goes to the talented, and to those who know how to expand their abilities.
3. Give and it shall be given unto you.
What confuses most people is that they expect angels to print money for them. That is not going to happen. God doesn’t pull anything out of thin air.
Jesus made wine–but he required water.
5,000 were fed–brought about by the fives loaves and two fishes.
When you give, you get respect. So we give, knowing that someday along the way we will need to have it given to us. If we are generous, “men will give unto our bosom, good measure, pressed down, running over.”
God does not write checks.
God does not have a checking account.
The giving we do establishes us as givers, and therefore opens the door for others to consider us worthy of receiving.
So as you think about God and finance, realize that He requires:
An accurate count
A positive, intelligent approach to our own talents which will bring benefit to our coffers
And establishing a pattern of giving so that people around us will be generous to us if the need arises.
When you stay faithful to these ideas instead of trying to imitate the success of others, you will find yourself rising above the crushing fear of money.
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