I used to (and sometimes still do) struggle with a mindset that as a Christian I shouldn’t have a lot of money. But, as I’ve learned this is living with a poverty mentality.
It’s also far from God’s heart because he wants to bless us, and bless us tremendously! Think about it, he’s the God of the entire universe and owns everything, we are his children and the apple of his eye, of course he’s going to bless us!
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” 2 Corinthians 9:8
We also have to look at our heart. If your heart isn’t idolizing money then you are stewarding your heart well.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24
Here are a couple questions to help you know if your heart is in the right place, I’ve taken these from the book The Blessed Life. This book has changed my life on this topic, and I highly recommend it to everyone, it will change yours too, I will post the link here.
Am I looking to God or to people to meet my needs?
Do I get angry or resentful with people who don’t help me as I want them to?
Do I blame others for my circumstances?
What we have been blessed with is God’s anyway, we are just called to steward that blessing from God and use it well.
So How Do We Steward Our Money?
1. First we must tithe
All throughout the bible we see the principle of tithing and bringing the first of our money into the house of God, specifically the first 10%.
“”Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”” Malachi 3:10
God is calling you to test him in the tithe, so I challenge you to test him this week by tithing 10% of your income and seeing how God will bless you.
This money is God’s anyway, and we are just returning that to him. When we do, the remaining 90% of our money is blessed. When we don’t we will have 100% of our money, but it will all be cursed.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.” Malachi 3:8-9
Another good point from Robert Morris’ book The Blessed Life is that Jesus was God’s tithe. He gave up his firstborn son for us before we ever even said yes to him. He gave him in faith, very much the same way we give our tithe, in faith.
2. Budget
I have been using the Dave Ramsey zero dollar budget for years. Before I used this I would live paycheck to paycheck and not have any extra money. My pay today has not changed much from back then, the only change is budgeting.
I now know where everything from our paycheck is going before we ever even spend a dime. Here is a link describing the zero dollar budget. It will literally change your life!
Download the EveryDollar app (this is the zero dollar budget app) on your phone and budget out where everything from your next paycheck is going to go.
First start with budgeting 10% of your income to the local church, next enter in all of your bills, after that use the remaining to designate to groceries, out to eat, gas, pocket money, etc.
3. Get out of debt
Commit to getting out of debt. The less money you are budgeting toward your bills the more you will have for other things, vacations, new clothes, missions, helping others in need, above and beyond giving, etc.
When you have less debt you can impact the kingdom of God more and can then be blessed further.
Here is another link to Dave Ramsey’s advice on getting out of debt. Simple and practical steps you can apply today.
First find your smallest debt and commit extra money each month to paying just that debt down until it’s gone. This requires sacrifice, maybe you will only eat out 1-2 times this month and use the extra to help pay that debt off.
Once you have paid it off go to the next debt and use the money from the first debt you just paid off, along with the payment you currently make on that debt, to start paying off the next debt.
4. Invest
Start looking at retirement accounts, etc to plan and save for your future. Here is another article by Dave Ramsey on using our money wisely now to benefit our family and us later.
This is smart stewardship of our money. Many people get to retirement age and have nothing to live on so they go back to work, or they get to retirement age and need to rely on their children to take care of them.
I don’t know about you but I would rather steward well now and not spend foolishly to be able to take care of myself later.
By investing I also mean in others. When you have a kingdom mindset on money, you aren’t concerned with storing everything up for yourself and your family. Don’t get me wrong, you need to take care of yourself and your family first.
But we are also called to “give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:19-21
5. Go above and beyond with your giving
Maybe you feel led to give more to others around you, to give more to missions, to your local shelter, to tithe a larger percentage.
Whenever you want to give generously hearing from God is key. He will tell you where he wants to place your generous gift, and then will bless you tremendously for that.
The Blessed Life book that I’ve talked about throughout now is filled with knowledge and scripture on giving and giving extravagantly. It is also filled with very inspiring stories on how doing these things have blessed others lives including the authors, Robert Morris’.
The key here is to steward your money first, if you haven’t stewarded your money well you won’t have any to give above and beyond.
Money should not be looked at as something evil, the love of it is. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10
Instead it is something God has blessed us with and wants to continue blessing us with. He truly wants to bless you, I love how The Passion Translation puts it in 2 Corinthians.
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything- every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do. Just as the Scriptures say about the one who trusts in him: Because he has sown extravagantly and give to the poor, his kindness and generous deeds will never be forgotten. This generous God who supplies abundant seed for the farmer, which becomes bread for our meals, is even more extravagant toward you. First he supplies every need, plus more. Then he multiplies the seed as you sow it, so that the harvest of your generosity will grow.” 2 Corinthians 9: 8-10 TPT
Use what he has blessed you with and steward it well so that money is not something you worry about, but instead something you find freedom and joy in!
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