The Scripture on Finance: The uses of money - Give and Grow

This article continues to look at material from the book “Never Enough?” by Ron Blue with Karen Guess.

1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his own, that is his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

When I make a decision in one area of my finances it impacts my financial situation in other areas as well. I can only spend or give away a dollar once. God owns everything but I do not. I need to remember to spend less than I earn because my financial success depends on developing this habit.

One of the tricks to financial maturity is learning how to balance competing priorities and allocate limited resources with confidence and clarity.

Mitch Anthony labels the five uses of money as Live: the money I live on; Give: the money I give away; Owe: the money I pay for debt and taxes and Grow: the money I save.

We need to realize that being content with what we have is a good starting point for prioritizing the competing financial categories in our lives. A long-term perspective will help us make better decisions. As we mature we can learn delayed gratification by choosing to give up today’s wants for future benefits.

The way things typically work is that we have to live and pay debt and taxes so those categories take the first two places in our financial lives. Then we may save for the future when we have margin and lastly we give when we see a need and have financial margin. Money is progressively less available the further down the priority list.

The Biblical perspective encourages us to give and grow. These are productive uses of money. Giving can yield earthly and eternal rewards and saving can benefit our future. It is our moral duty to pay our debts and our taxes and then we consume money to live on. We can enjoy what is left to live on when we tend to the most important areas of our financial lives first.

Small changes in our priorities can have huge effects in the future. The Biblical instruction of Godliness with contentment can bring us great joy as we cooperate with the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 1 Timothy 6:8 “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.”

Derek Prince once taught that maturity was seeing the ideal and living in the real. Some of us may eat or dress better or worse than others depending on a number of factors. I believe that God wants us to have what we need to have in order to accomplish His assignment through us. Spiritually He qualifies the called. In the natural He will provide us with the tools we need to accomplish the tasks He has assigned to us.

We should remember that everything created by God is good and that all good gifts come from Him. We can enjoy what He has given us to enjoy while recognizing that we continue to steward all He has entrusted to us. If we are rich in the world’s goods we need to remember not to be arrogant or to trust in our wealth, but in God. It is God who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.

Each day we will have to choose if we are going to be a slave of God or of money. If we choose to worship money we may wander from the faith and experience pain. The bottom line is that each of us is on a faith journey with God. As we mature there should be more contentment in our lives.

This week let’s make sure that we are free from the love of money while recognizing that we have enough. Let’s choose to be content, avoid temptation and harmful desires while celebrating God’s provision and expressing our gratitude to Him. May God bless you big.

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This is the 15th column in a series by Kevin Barsotti, pastor at Ark Church in Havre, about financial matters and their treatment in the Christian faith.