What Does Money Have to Do With It?

April 13, 2009 - April 15 has passed and tax season is over. Or, perhaps you have filed for an extension. Either way, you are probably thinking about how to spend or save that refund.

by Joy Allmond

With so much focus on the financial aspects of our lives, we can easily forget to put God in the center of the equation. But God has a lot to say about what we do with our money. How we handle money affects our relationship with Him. Because of this, each financial decision is a spiritual one.

Reliance upon God

God is the owner of everything. Psalm 24:1 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.” Because God is the owner of everything, He is the provider of anything.

Look at what Luke 12:22-24 says about His provision.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: the neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!"

Do you believe that? Do you believe Him? Reliance upon God means reliance upon His word and believing it to be true. Have faith in what God promised us through His word.

Hebrews 11 explains faith as something that cannot be seen. In today’s economic climate, society, and the Christians among it, worry about not getting things we need. In fact, most of us worry about not getting things we want.

And so, we borrow or “purchase” with credit. This makes us reliant upon what lenders can get for us, rather than what God will lovingly and willfully provide for us.

Commitment to God

Matthew 6:24 tells us, “You cannot serve both God and money.” When we place too much emphasis on money, or what it can buy for us, we put something in our lives that will compete with God.

With today’s “buy now, pay later” mentality, debt competes with God for our hearts and our devotion, because it is a form of imprisonment. We are no longer free to give as much to God and His causes since we are bound to lenders.

Jesus died for us so we can be free. Spending ourselves into debt goes against that, because He does not want us to be in bondage. When we are in debt, we are enslaved to it. We are bound to it, constantly worrying how we are going to make monthly payments.

Luke 4:18 tells us that Jesus was sent “to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.”

When we are free from the claws of debt and the trap of materialism, we are not only free from bondage. We are free to be content.

Contentment with God

Not only does God have a lot to say about money, He has much to say about contentment.

Paul writes in Philippians that he has “learned to be content in whatever circumstances.” First Timothy 6:8 gets more specific about this issue when it comes to money. “And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”

If we understand God’s role as the provider and our role as the steward, we can become more content with our financial circumstances. We, as humans, shoulder much of the responsibility that belongs to God. When we fail because we are not God, and cannot do what He alone can do, we become discontented. This hinders our relationship with God.

Experience the fullness of a relationship with God today. Rely on God for what you need, commit to Him regardless of your circumstances, and become content with Him and what he provides.