What’s Your Relationship Status With God?
FaithFi: Faith & Finance | Jul 28, 2023
Show Notes
Most people would say their most important relationship is with their spouse, or children, or perhaps a friend. And they’d be wrong. Those relationships are important— we need them— but they don’t carry eternal significance like your relationship with God. Today we’ll give you some practical ways to strengthen that relationship.
This is a program about money, and you may be wondering what money has to do with our relationship with God. That’s a fair question and the answer is … a lot!
And the Bible gives us three dots to make that connection.FIRST: God created everything and therefore He owns everything. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”SECOND: God gave us everything we possess. Deuteronomy 10:14 reads, “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.” So God owns everything, but He’s given us resources to use temporarily as his stewards.THIRD: God is not distant and detached. He wants a close relationship with you. James 4:8 tells us, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”We draw near to God by being obedient and following His law. With over 2,300 verses in Scripture about money and possessions, God has made his desire quite clear. He wants us to manage money according to His principles.
Our friend Howard Dayton points out that wisely managing money and the other resources God blesses us with deepens our fellowship with Christ. Having a close relationship with Jesus is another way to describe what the Bible calls “true riches.”
In Luke 16:11, Jesus indicates that God uses money as a test. He says, “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?”
Jesus is saying that how you handle money affects your spiritual life. If you manage it well according to biblical principles, you’ll naturally grow closer to Him. If not, your fellowship with Him suffers.
So biblical money management is a very practical way to improve your spiritual life, but sometimes things get in the way of that. There are two kinds of disobedience that keep us from handling money God’s way and growing closer to Him.
The first is passive. It’s just laziness. Some people don’t want to take the time to organize their finances, make a budget, and track their spending. Doing those things might only take a few hours a month. Still, it’s just too much to bother with. As a result, intimacy with God suffers.
If you don’t have a spending plan, we urge you to download the FaithFi app. It provides three options for setting up a budget quickly and easily and then tracking your spending.So that’s the first form of disobedience: passive. Another person has a different obstacle to growing closer to God. It’s an active or willful disobedience. For that person, money and possessions compete with Christ.
Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms how that will turn out. In Matthew 6:24 He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Often that person thinks he can surrender every part of his life to Christ except money.
He might be good at making money, paying bills on time, saving and investing, but he refuses to give Christ lordship over his finances.
Maybe he stumbles over tithing or other giving to God’s Kingdom. He has the resources, but just doesn’t want to give. Again, his intimacy with Christ suffers.
Finally, there’s another person who’s not following biblical financial principles but thinks her relationship with the Lord is just fine. To her we might say, “What you don’t know will hurt you. What are you missing out on? You might think finances aren’t interfering with your relationship with God, but how would you know?
If any of these people sound like you, commit your finances to the Lord in earnest prayer and then follow through managing your money and possessions His way!
On today’s program, Rob also answers listener questions:- What is the wisest way for a business owner to use recently received Employee Retention Credit funds?
- If you’re married but the home mortgage is only in one spouse’s name, is it a good idea to add the other spouse to the note?
- How do you determine whether it’s best to hire someone to help you manage your retirement funds?
