Finances

     Did you know that there are over 2,000 bible verses dedicated to money and possessions? I sure didn’t until I began researching it for myself. Jesus Christ said more about money then he did about prayer and faith combined! So why did Jesus Christ say so much about finances? He spoke about it for one simple reason; it’s a big problem. Almost everything we do as humans will revolve around money in some kind of fashion. Money is a brutal master. Families are separated because of it, people commit suicide because of it, Countries become corrupt because of it and people become bitter over it. So how on earth can money be a good thing, after all money is the route of all evil, right? Wrong, the LOVE of money is a key role in evil.
      Lets look at ways money holds us back from our full potential that the Lord created us for. First, how we handle our money affects our fellowship with the Lord. In Luke 16:11 we read, “If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?” Jesus clearly lays it all out for us in this verse. He equates our spiritual life with how we handle our money. Secondly, possessions compete with the Lord. God wants nothing in competition with Him. We see in Exodus 20:3 that God is a jealous God, “You shall have no other gods before me”. Thirdly, much of life revolves around the use of money. During a normal week, how much time do you spend earing money in your job, making decisions on how you’re going to spend your money, or thinking about what you’re going to spend your next pay check on. Lets be honest, we all struggle with money.
      So what’s the answer you might ask? There are two basic alternatives to this problem: the Bible and the answers people devise. People spend money the way they see fit. Rarely does a person handle money the way God intended for it to be managed. Money will actually draw you closer to Christ. See society says that God plays no role in handling money, and your happiness is based on what you can afford and what you don’t have. Scripture says that as you learn to follow the scriptural principals of how to handle money, you will draw closer to Christ and you will learn to be content no matter the circumstance.