A stool is a very handy thing to have around. It offers you a place to sit down, of course, but it still offers you a lot of freedom to move around. A stool is great for projects because you can sit down and still move around without having to deal with armrests or other things that might get in your way. But a stool has to be in balance if its going to be useful; if you remove one of its legs, it just becomes dangerous to sit on.
Many lessons in the Bible are the same—they have to be balanced in order to serve their purpose. For virtually every subject that the Bible addresses, it offers a couple of viewpoints that have to be balanced if you’re going to see things correctly. For example, the Bible tells us that God is just and holy, He has wrath toward sin; yet the Bible also tells us that He is loving, gracious, and merciful. These perspectives have to be balanced if we’re going to have a correct view of God.
This observation holds true when we think about money. During church history, we’ve seen some very different perspectives on money and wealth. In the last few decades, a teaching has arisen called the “prosperity gospel” which basically teaches that God wants to fulfill every materialistic whim that you may have. On the other side of the spectrum, we have also seen Christian groups who felt it was necessary to take a vow of poverty.
I think both of those viewpoints are unbiblical extremes, but if that’s true, then what is a balanced mindset regarding money and wealth? The book of Proverbs helps us keep our balance on this subject, so today we’ll take a look at what it has to say about balancing your money mindset.
What does a balanced money mindset look like?
We might say that Proverbs gives us three supports to help us balance our money mindset.
I. Wealth properly acquired is a blessing from God
We all know that wealth can be improperly acquired at times, and God may allow that for His own reasons, but if we acquire wealth without resorting to sinful means, then we can rest assured that that wealth is a blessing from God. Prov. 10:22 makes an almost startling statement when it says, [READ 10:22]. Do you understand what this verse is saying? God may choose to make someone rich as a blessing to them, and if He does, He doesn’t intend for that person to feel sorrowful about it! God is not in the business of giving us a blessing and then making us feel guilty for possessing the blessing that He gave us!
So riches are a blessing that God may choose to give. We see this lesson elsewhere in Scripture as well. Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses told them in Deut. 28 that if they would obey God, “the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow” (Deut. 28:11–12).
We can also think of the story of Solomon from 1 Kings 3. God spoke to Solomon in that chapter and told him that he would give him anything he asked for. Solomon asked for wisdom to govern God’s people in the right way, and God was so pleased that He told Solomon that even though He didn’t ask for riches, He was going to make him a wealthy man!
I think its clear that God doesn’t see wealth as an automatically negative thing. Otherwise, why would He grant it to someone and call it a blessing? Apparently God does not see wealth as an automatic temptation either, because James 1 says that God does not tempt anyone, but we are tempted when we are lead astray by our own desires. That’s the real problem—we take God’s blessings and turn them into idols. We can take any of God’s blessings and turn them into idols—our marriage, our kids, our jobs, our possessions. Our hearts have been described as an idol-making factory—just give us the raw materials and we can make an idol out of it. Money is no different—it’s a blessing that we can turn into a curse.
Now we have also seen in a previous sermon that wise living normally results in prosperity. In Prov. 8, the personified Lady Wisdom talks about the benefits of following her way of life [READ 8:18–21]. The way of wisdom and the way of prosperity are often on the same path because they involve the same kinds of behavior—actions like honesty, integrity, hard work, generosity and attitudes like contentment and the fear of the Lord. That makes sense, doesn’t it? If you work hard and you’re honest and generous and content with life so that you’re not driven by greed, then most likely you’re going to prosper. And if you do, just count it as a blessing from God. There’s no reason to feel guilty about it. If you do prosper and you feel guilty about it, then either you’re dealing with unnecessary guilt, or you may be acquiring it in the wrong way or managing it the wrong way. Those are thoughts to consider, but we need not feel guilty if God has blessed us.
The second support for our balanced mindset is this…
II. Wealth can bring trouble and temptations into your life
Many people are tempted to think that wealth would solve any problems that they have, but wealth is kind of like an illegal drug—it may numb the pain of certain problems, but it brings a whole new set of problems with it. Look with me at Prov. 13:8 [READ Prov. 13:8]. Now when does a person have to pay a ransom? When someone is trying to extort them, right? Perhaps when someone has been kidnapped and a payment is demanded for their safe return. So according to this verse, a person’s wealth may become a ransom for his life, but a poor person doesn’t have to deal with threats like that. Generally, people target a wealthy person in a scheme like that. A famous bank robber was once asked why he robbed banks, and he said, “That’s where the money is.” That’s the same reason why wealthy people may be targeted like this—that’s where the money is!
Wealth can make you a target for trouble with other people. Many lottery winners will tell you that this is true. Stories like that of William Post are far too common. Mr. Post won $16.2 million in 1988, but not long after winning the troubles started to come. He was successfully sued by a former girlfriend for part of the winnings, and his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him because he thought he would inherit a share of the money. His other siblings pressured him into investing in a car dealership and a restaurant, which both went broke. Eventually he had to declare bankruptcy, and now he lives on a $450/month Social Security check.*
So money can bring trouble into your life in the form of attacks from others or even just worry about hanging on to your money. It can also bring temptations with it, particularly the temptation to find security in your money rather than in God. Let’s read Prov. 18:10–11 [READ 18:10–11]. Notice the contrast—the righteous person takes refuge in the Lord, but the rich person imagines that his money can provide the same kind of security. Prov. 11:28 sums up the matter very well when it says, “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.” That is why Agur made his famous statement in Prov. 30:7–9. Why don’t you turn there with me? [READ 30:7–9] Here he points out that the temptation that comes from wealth is to think that we don’t need God. Here again is that mindset which says, “My money will take care of me if I just get enough of it.” How quickly we forget where our money comes from! Notice that Agur also pointed out a temptation that comes from poverty—the temptation to use sinful means to take care of ourselves. So there’s a note of balance right there!
We have now seen two very different perspectives on money and wealth. One says that wealth is a blessing from the Lord, and the other says that wealth can bring trouble and temptation into your life. So how do we move forward from here? We need our third support to give us some balance! The third support is this:
III. Don’t seek to get wealthy, but manage your wealth biblically if it comes
With all of the potential problems associated with wealth, it is best not to seek to get rich. Look with me at Prov. 23:4–5 [READ 23:4–5]. Not only does wealth bring potential problems, it can also disappear very quickly! It is not the lasting foundation that we’re tempted to think it is, so why should we make acquiring wealth the focus of our efforts?
According to Proverbs, it is better to focus on acquiring a righteous character. Let’s read a few verses [READ 15:16, 16:8, 28:6]. Now let’s make sure that we understand what these verses are saying. They are not saying that money is evil, bad, and terrible; they are simply saying that riches and wealth are not as good as righteousness, integrity, and the fear of the Lord. So if we have to choose between righteousness and riches, the correct choice is a no-brainer—righteousness wins every time! So that’s where our focus should be—on living a righteous life. It would be terribly sad if we left righteousness behind in order to pursue riches.
Thus, wealth should not be our focus in life. This observation has some important lessons for us in all of the various ways that we interact with money. This means that even when we think about saving and investing, our goal in that process should not simply be to get wealthy. Our goal instead should be to aim for righteousness as we save and invest—we should see to it that we have righteous motivations and righteous intentions for that money.
And when we think about earning our money, we shouldn’t work simply with the goal of getting rich. Money should not be the driving force behind our labor. Teenagers, this means that when you’re thinking about a career to pursue, don’t simply get a list of the “Top Ten Highest Paying Jobs” and then pick whatever is #1 on the list! You need to have righteous motivations for your work and righteous intentions for your labor. Don’t just look at money—think of your job as a ministry, and consider how you are best equipped to serve other people.
So let’s not seek to get wealthy, but as I said earlier, the way of wisdom and righteousness and the way of prosperity are often on the same path. So if you pursue righteousness, you may end up with prosperity as a blessing from God, and if you do, then just manage it biblically. Be aware of the temptations and the pitfalls and avoid them by focusing on how God would have you manage that money. Biblically, our role when it comes to finances is that of a steward or a caretaker—the money belongs to God and we’re just supposed to handle it the way He wants us to. We need to be careful to remember that because its far too easy to think of money as ours, but it is not ours—it belongs to God. In many cases, He simply desires that we would channels through which He can bless other people. I think Pastor John Piper captured this well when he wrote these words: “Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on, and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others. The issue is not how much a person makes. Big industry and big salaries are a fact of our times, and they are not necessarily evil. The evil is in being deceived into thinking a six-digit salary must be accompanied by a six-digit lifestyle. God has made us to be conduits of His grace. The danger is in thinking the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn’t. Copper will do.”**
As every child learns when they try to ride a bike, balance is a tricky thing to maintain. So it is with your mindset about money. It is a difficult balance to keep, and we all do better at some times than at others. It is also much easier to judge others when we think they’re out of balance than it is to recognize when we are out of balance. But if we keep God’s truth in hand, it will steady us as we walk across this tightrope.
*Information taken from http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/8lotteryWinnersWhoLostTheirMillions.aspx
** John Piper, Desiring God, (Multnomah Publishers, Inc. 2003) 203.
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