Money is earthly. Money is spiritual. Money is an earthly substance with enormously spiritual implications. Money is God to many people. They bow to it. They live for it. Their joy is in it. Because money can wield such spiritual influence, Christian and secular people think on money in vastly different ways.
Secular thinking focuses on earth. Consequently, secular advice on handling money tends to focus on how to maximize money or utilize money solely for the here and now. Secular people do not think about how money impacts their soul or their eternity. They focus on good principles for investing now or saving now or how to get the most product for their buck.
Christian thought, however, has an eternal and spiritual focus. Christians see all of the temporal and practical matters of the here and now and may even agree with much secular advice on investing and saving and what not. But Christians see more than this, and they do not believe that these temporal, practical matters are the main thing. In fact, to the Christian, secular advice may be woefully impractical because it ignores the main thing.
In secular thinking, you maximize earthly gain. But in Christianity, sometimes you sacrifice earthly gain for the sake of your soul. Thus, as I give Christian principles for how to handle money, sometimes I will be at loggerheads with what the secular world will tell you. On other points dealing with practical earthly matters, we may agree to an extent, but as long as I take my cues from above and they take theirs from the here and now, we can never fully agree. The Christian and secular person will never fully see eye to eye on money.
With that as an intro, let’s dive into some Christian principles for handling money.
God owns it all
Perhaps the first fact we need to understand about money is that whatever money we have is not ours. It is God’s money, and God has seen fit to let us manage it. This is a fact that our flesh fights against. “No!” we scream. “It’s my money! I worked the job! I got the paycheck! The bank account has my name on it!”
But it isn’t my money. God gave me the job. God gave me the talents and skills I use in that job. God gave me the breath I breathe so I can work that job. And God did the same with my employer. The very money that my employer paid me came from God. Not only does God own the money I have, but God owns the house, the car, the clothes, the jewelry, everything. In fact, God owns me. He may let me use the material possessions in my domain as a father lets his children use the bedroom they sleep in. He may let me manage the money in a bank account with my name on it as an investor lets a financial planner manage his funds, but the child doesn’t own the bedroom nor the manager the money.
What this means for the purpose of handling money is that we need to manage God’s money for God’s purposes and not for ours. Of course, God’s purposes will include providing for the needs of you and your family, but He will also have bigger purposes than that. He wants to see if you can trust Him enough to use His money as He decides.
Be grateful
Gratitude flows naturally from the fact that God owns it all. If God owns everything I have, then everything I have comes from grace. I don’t deserve one cent of the money I have. Whether I am financially rich or poor, I deserve less.
Satan fights against gratitude by convincing us that we own the money, that we worked for it, and that we deserve to do what we please with it. When the heart holds onto money, it is not grateful for it.
Satan also fights against gratitude by getting us to compare ourselves with those who have more and by convincing us that we deserve more. When you think that way, you will not be grateful. But when you see that you deserve nothing and that you own nothing of what God has entrusted you with, you are grateful for what you have.
Gratitude does not involve how much money you have but how you view the money you have. A poor elderly woman can be grateful for her pittance, while a rich young man can feel entitled to more. Or a wealthy man can be grateful for his estate, while a poor woman is bitter that others have more. Gratitude is in your heart, not in your bank account.
Be content with what you have
Contentment also flows naturally from the fact that God owns it all, and contentment is crucial to handling money properly. When you are content in Christ, you are content. And when you are content, you don’t need more money to be content. I’ve written on this already here.
Understand that money is temporary
When you die, the money doesn’t go with you. Money is useful for 80 or 90 years, but in eternity it is useless. Why trade away eternal benefit so you can have something for 90 years? That’s a foolish trade. Live for eternity. When you consider how to handle money, do so with eternity in mind.
Let go of money
If God owns it all, let Him own it. Stop handling money as if it is yours. Money has the power to corrupt your heart and devour your soul, and almost everyone whom money corrupts and devours has no idea what it does to them. It is a cancer quietly eating away their heart while they go to work, raise their kids, and buy their home. If you cannot let go of money, money will not let go of you. It will drive you and control you and enslave you, and you won’t even know it.
Let go of it! You can’t live for God and for money. Let go of it! If you gain the whole world but lose your soul, you are a fool. Let go of it! It’s not yours. Let go of it! You can’t take it with you to eternity. Let go of it!
The heart must be free from money. You cannot serve two masters. If Christ is your Lord, money will not be. If money is your Lord, Christ will not be. The most effective way to let go of money is to cling with all your heart to Christ, to love Him, pursue Him, adore Him, and serve Him. This is not just a show. Many who claim the name of Christ don’t love or serve Him. Jesus must be your Lord from the heart. It must be real. Do that, and you will begin the fight of letting go of money.
Up to this point, every principle I have mentioned has focused on heart attitudes. The heart is central. Many people who talk about money talk only about outward behaviors – saving, spending, debt, investment, emergency funds, IRAs. But the stance of the heart toward money is the foundation for outwardly handling money in a godly manner. If the heart is wrong, the behaviors will be misplaced at best.
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