All In the Family

The other day we were in a family discussion about school with my daughter.  It centered around some extra school work she would have to do otherwise she would have to see a tutor.  My son who has been blessed to have that tutor for many years piped up and said “WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!!!”

If you currently owe money of any sort to any person or company at any amount; then “WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN FAMILY!!!”  Debt is so normal now that all the people I speak with don’t ever recall a time without debt.  In other words, being strapped or broke is normal in today’s’ society.  It’s weird to think of someone buying a car with out going into debt.  Odd to consider people buy furniture without credit.

We have adjusted, adapted, and changed how we view finances to include debt.  That mindset has us working more and more to pay for the stuff we took home months ago.  We really don’t work for ourselves anymore; we actually go to work to simply hand that money to someone else.  By the way, this adjustment is not for the better.  It has bound us up, not just in the present but also in the future.

These decisions have caused us to become enslaved to money which has become our standard today.  But God did not provide us this tool in order for us to serve it!  Instead He wants it to serve us.  Yet at the core, the problem is and will never be money itself.  Money is amoral and does only what it’s human counterpart causes it to.  I can build OR destroy lives with it.  That same twenty-dollar bill you put aside for savings might have also been used to buy drugs.  It’s the human operator that changes the effect of money. 

So at the core of poor finances is a person with a heart focused on the wrong thing.  And usually they expect more money to solve that heart problem but it never does.  More money only magnifies the problem.  In order to be wealthy you first have to start with your heart motives and gain God’s perspective on money as your own.  What is God’s perspective on money?  I am glad you asked, first it’s a tool!  Second it’s to serve us so we can serve God and third it’s there to bring joy.

I would recommend you take time this week to gain a Godly perspective on money by reading and talking over the following Bible passages.

Day 1:  Proverbs 22:7

Day 2:  Matthew 6:19-24

Day 3:  1 Timothy 6:1-10

Day 4:  Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

Day 5:  Romans 13:8-10

Day 6:  Luke 16:1-15

Day 7:  Proverbs 21:20