Getting Real about Money

Money affects the places we are willing to live, it affects the sacrifices we are willing to make, it affects the commitment of our time and effort, and nothing tests the strength of our moral convictions like money does.

Jesus said ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ Matt 6:21 NKJV

What does that mean? That means how we choose to use our money is a revelation of where our devotion is.

The good news is that God wants you to prosper.

“And let them say continually, ‘Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.’” Ps 35:27 NKJV

‘Prosperity’ here means, ‘completeness’, ‘wholeness’, ‘peace’.

So our first reality check in getting real about money is the biblical picture of God’s prosperity is not related to the quantity of money you have, but the quality of life you live.

It is my pleasure to confidently declare to you that it is God’s will to prosper your life when you walk in His ways… but that prosperity doesn’t look like huge wads of cash, it looks like you and I living the shepherded life of Psalm 23.

But beyond the prosperity of a shepherded life there are those amongst us whom God gives the power to get wealth.

‘We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;  If it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.’  Rom 12:6-8 NIV

So some people have been given the power to get wealth so that they can contribute to the needs of others.

God is not nervous about abundance, it’s our attitude towards it that He takes issue with.

Have you got a healthy attitude towards money?  Wealth without the right attitude is a curse not a blessing.
Cursed wealth is the kind that will choke your relationship with God and creates greed and destruction of relationships.

“The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” Prov 10:22 NKJV

It’s true that some of us are called to sacrificial areas of ministry, BUT we are released to do so by the financial giving of others!!

Thank God for the prosperity of God-loving people because their money says to the missionary, ‘You go and I will support you.’
When opportunities come along we can do more than just let them pass us by because money says, ‘Let’s take this opportunity.’

I have travelled to third world countries for 20 years of my life and I see no blessing in poverty, only a terrible curse that drives people to do desperate and shameful things.

I don’t love money but I sure love what money can do when it gets into the hands of Godly people because then that money becomes godly.

That money can say to those in poverty – ‘I can feed you.’ That money can say to the abused, ‘I can protect you.’  It can say to the orphaned, ‘I can educate you and give you a future.’ Let’s get real about money – in the right hands it can enable wonderful things to happen.