Pastor, what is the right attitude I should have about money?

We live in a very materialistic world, where we obsess about things, like things and stuff. And first among those things and stuff we worry a lot about is money, cash, who much we got, how much the neighbor has, and how much we wish we had. One reason our culture tends to obsess about Hollywood and Sports celebrities is that we see these people as “rich”. And if people are “rich”, then their lives are an open book for the super-market tabloids, and in a way some people envy them or their homes, cars, jets, whatever. Some common sense about money.

1. Money is a trust. Psalm 24:1, Psalm 50: 10-12. Lesson one; God is the owner of everything, even our money. If we as fortunate to have any, be it a dollar or a million dollars, there is no hidden assets from the Lord. Our jobs if we are so blessed, it is to be wise stewards and care-takers of what the Lord has given us. Are you living, spending, blowing all you have on the stuff and items of this world, in the vain hope that maybe we can take it with us, or are we spending and saving as if we know that we do not own ourselves, but that we honor the Lord in all we say and do.

2. Money is a tool. Luke 16: 19-31. Is money using you, are you using money? Money may indeed be the currency of the world, but it will not buy you one soda in the Kingdom of the Lord. Cash, money, any resource you may have is yours, as a trust from God, to use, invest, wisely manage, or spend blow, rack-up debt and put yourself in a hole. That hole is our making, not God‘s. One can be a slave to debt, a slave to time-payments, a slave to payday loans, a slave to the “American Dream“, boat in the driveway and 5 ton SUV, or a servant of the Lord. Choice is yours.

3. Money is test. Money is a test of the faithfulness of our lives in three parts.

  • Who is the master of our lives?
  • What are our worldly and faith responsibilities?
  • Where is the ultimate ”bank‘ of the Lord? Here or eternal?

Once those issues are addressed, then the whole issue of the role and place of money, stuff, things in our lives become a bit clearer

— Pastor Gregory