Is God In The Midst Of Your Finances?

As Christians, we often ask God to intervene in a situation that’s too big to handle on our own; but when was the last time you asked him for guidance even if the situation was within your reach? I’ve definitely been guilty of doing this without asking God to guide me. Through spiritual growth however, I began to get better with time and, through the process, was able to implement more effective ways to be a better steward. The Bible talks a lot about stewardship, but we’re going to focus on the money side of that responsibility. You see, the money we earn is God’s money and he has asked that we be good stewards over it. What does a good steward look like and what do they do?

Proverbs 21:20 says, “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.” As stewards of God’s money, he desires that we use wisdom and care. In fact, many scriptures reference humility and generosity as well. For me, all of them are equally important. 

For a moment, think about a financial advisor. What are your expectations when you work with someone in that profession? Just as we trust and expect financial advisors to assist us in planning for the future with investments, and having our best interest in mind, God also expects that we are properly investing/using his money effectively. To be fair, I’m not saying you will be condemned if you are having difficulties with money management, but imagine how God could use you if that wasn’t a problem area in your life? 

Think about how having money issues affected or is still affecting other areas of your life? If anything, COVID-19 has taught us that now, more than ever, we need to self-analyze. Are you one paycheck away from chaos ensuing? Can you withstand a small financial emergency? Are we aligning ourselves so one day we can bless others? If you aren’t already, no worries, here are four ways to invite God into your finances:

1. Pay Your Tithe

You may be wondering, why should I tithe? Where in the Bible does it say that we should pay a 10% tithe? The definition of tithe means one tenth. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” 

You see, paying a tithe is a spiritual relationship between you and God. For me, it’s a faith walk that even during debt repayment was important to fulfill. I believe that the blessings my family has received are partly because of obedience to God’s word, amongst other things. Try it for yourself!

2. Pray Before Kicking-off Your Budget Meeting 

When we started our debt free journey I was all in, but I was also nervous. The thought of being even more frugal than I already was felt daunting. However, asking God to protect us during our journey to financial freedom gave us a sense of presence and protection. Now I’m not saying everything went perfect during our journey because it definitely didn’t. But even when things went wrong, like my husband’s car breaking down after we had not too long ago paid to get it fixed, we were frustrated but not hopeless. God truly brought us through some tough situations that some people would have thrown the towel in and given up. Through it all, we never missed a payment and it felt calming to know that God was in our corner rooting for our success. 

3. Study What God Says About Money

Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” So if the Bible emphasizes what being indebted to someone feels like, why do we still feel comfortable with being in debt? Well, it’s because we’ve been conditioned by society to increase debt in order to secure wealth or to get by. The more we learned to handle money, the more we understood that starting the journey was more important than allowing fear to hold you back.

4. Blessed To Be A Blessing

One of my favorite childhood scriptures, Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Can you imagine a life where you give cheerfully and good things will come back to you? Now I’m not implying that you should give just to get something back. What I am saying is that at some point in our journeys we’ll be able to give freely and our needs will still be supplied. Imagine how a ‘super-blessed’ you can super-bless others? I’m smiling from ear-to-ear thinking about this for all of us.

So no matter the situation, ask God to cover you from the onset of your financial journey. Be a good steward of HIS money and watch things manifest.