How Your Money Can Serve You

We serve God, money serves us.

Money is a topic that stirs emotion and gets a reaction. It’s crazy how green paper brings out so many attitudes, thoughts, opinions, and behaviors, especially in church. Oh yes, green paper can control people to the point they resist God and follow green paper as the purpose of their lives. It’s wild.

But God cares about our money because he cares most about us!

Doing life through Jesus gives us the possibility of having order, peace, and His blessing on everything we do, including money.

Money is NOT the problem.

Notice what the Bible says.

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬

God says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. This speaks to people being the problem. Money is an arbitrary object, it’s what we do with it and how we navigate it that makes it good or bad.

The question is, who are we serving?

When we serve God, money serves us.

Meaning, that money is under our leadership because we’re under God’s leadership. He’s number one and the source of all we need. This compels us to do life His way and that includes our money.

Everyone has to decide how they will spend their money, and every Christian has to decide to obey God with their money.

Here’s what Jesus said about us and money.

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭24‬

From this verse there’s one way to do money through Jesus; we serve God and money serves us.

He’s number one in everything we do!

His way is our way, and this includes money!

Is money serving you? Or are you serving money?

Please don’t underestimate money and think this is not important to Jesus or it’s a money grab by pastors. These thoughts and more are NOT true. When we block God from our finances, we’re robbing Him of an opportunity to bless us and to help us healthily lead money.

So, here are three ways for money to serve us.

1st – Give God tithes and offerings.

This is the way in the Kingdom of God. When we receive Jesus, we’re now in His Kingdom and it operates through His ways and principles. Giving tithes and offerings is one of these aspects from God for our finances.

When we give tithes and offerings to our local church we’re returning what belongs to Him, we’re giving so His church grows and thrives and we’re giving God a chance to bless us abundantly. Please read Malachi 3:10-12 to see this promise.

This promise is one of two where God says, test me and see what happens. That’s bold as He’s putting His name and reputation on the fact that He will bless us when we honor Him with our finances.

When people argue about tithing, resist it, and debate it, there’s always a deeper issue. Money is attached to the heart and what Jesus wants is our heart.

Here’s the deal, God wants His church and His people to have more than enough. Every part of our lives can be touched and blessed by the hand of God; therefore, it’s up to us to obey and let him in.

2nd – Live on a budget.

God gives us instructions to live within our means and have stewardship. This is a way of money serving us through the plan we have for our money. It’s giving God tithes and offerings, saving, and then taking care of our responsibilities.

There’s order to this when we insert leadership toward the money we have. Money doesn’t lead us, we lead money. We do this by having a plan and working on a plan consistently.

When we serve God, money serves us.

When we serve money, we can’t serve God fully.

Here’s what Paul said about this.

“Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?

Romans 6:16

Notice, we can be a slave to money, junk food, TV, our phones, bad habits, and anything else.

Are you a slave to something you should be leading?

Being under Jesus is where everything in our lives will be blessed. This is where everything, including money, can have order, peace, and His blessing. This is what we all want and this is what God will give when we do money His way.

So, I encourage you to live on a budget. Dave Ramsey has great tools and resources for this and if needed, I encourage you to check it out. The information is empowering to take your next steps.

3rd – Have a money plan.

God blesses plans. God has a plan and doing life this way is healthy and good. Now, He can change the plan and do something beyond what we see because He’s God and we’re not.

But, we do our part by having a plan and begin to move forward. When it comes to money we need a plan for retirement, vacations, investments, college funds, household projects, being generous, legacy giving through inheritances, and more.

When we plan it, we’ll be ready to do it. If we don’t have a plan it won’t happen and we won’t be prepared for the opportunity.

Planning with money takes intentionality and an ongoing flow of communication, evaluation, and adjustments. It takes effort just like being in shape, exercise, date nights, and one-on-one time with your kids. If we plan for it, we’ll receive the benefits of it. If we don’t have a plan, it will be a hope with no action or results.

So I encourage you, to make a plan and do money God’s way. Let Him bless you and help in this big area of your life.

What if you don’t have enough money to live, let alone work a plan? What if you’re on welfare or in poverty? What if you’re spending more than you make and you’re drowning in debt?

God sees you and knows what you’re facing. Furthermore, I believe God can turn these situations around. He can break the back of poverty and bring you into abundance.

Why is this true?

Just like how God can heal us, restore us, turn evil for good, deliver us, and give us new beginnings, He can also bless us financially. He touches every area of our lives because He delights in all our details.

So, If you find yourself in this situation, move forward and give something to God. Prove Him and when He blesses you, honor Him and watch what happens. He will increase you more and more and break lack away from your life.

We serve God and money serves us! Watch what happens when you do life this way.

God bless you and the best is yet to come,

PD