Financial stress can affect your marriage, your family, and even your health. Stress and lack are not God’s plan for you. His plan is for you to prosper. If you are not handling your finances in line with God’s plan, then your whole life will be out of joint.
A large part of the stress people experience is due to lies they believe about their finances.
The first step in changing your situation is to change your thinking. We’re going to talk about three common lies that families believe and what God’s Word says about those issues.
THREE LIES FAMILIES BELIEVE ABOUT MONEY
LIE #1
We’ll never be able to make enough money to provide for all our family’s needs.
Have you ever thought this? Do you currently think this? God’s Word says just the opposite.
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
Deuteronomy 8:18 tells us that it is the Lord who gives us the power to get wealth so that He might establish His covenant on the earth. If we take steps to bring our finances in line with the Word of God and the principles of His wisdom, God will bless us and prosper us in order to lead others to Him.
In I Timothy 5:8, we read — But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
God isn’t going to give us a command that we cannot fulfill.
God hasn’t left us without answers. I believe He has provided us everything we need to take care of our families, but we’re going to have to get into His Word to find out how to receive it.
If you don’t know God has promised to supply your need then you’ll never go to Him when you have a need. That’s how believing the lie hurts you.
Did you know that God expects you to increase? That means He has given you the ability to increase financially.
The breath we breathe, the life we live, the strength in our hands and in our bodies—whatever we possess in God—God gave it to us as a gift. We don’t own anything! We’re just managing it so we can pass it on to our children. Then they can manage it and pass it on to their children, and we can constantly be a blessing to our families, our churches, our communities and the world.
The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1
God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings.
I Peter 4:10 TLB
Your needs aren’t too much for God to handle. They aren’t a surprise to Him either. Don’t let the Devil lie tell you that things can’t change, that new behaviors can’t be learned, or that you’re too far in debt to ever recover. That’s not true!
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LIE #2
2. If we could just get more money all our problems would be solved.
We need to examine our attitudes, beliefs, and behavior when it comes to finances because poverty originates in our souls—not in our bank accounts. How many times have we heard about someone who won the lottery or received a large sum of money in an inheritance, and they lost all of it, got divorced, and went bankrupt within a short time after that?
Great amounts of money won’t deliver us if we don’t have prosperity in our souls. To have prosperous souls we have to renew our minds and get rid of our old thoughts. We have to realize that our current financial condition is a result of our current financial thinking.
As a man thinks in his heart, so is he….
Proverbs 23:7
A quick word of caution: There’s another side to this lie. You’ll hear people say that wanting money is a sin and it’s a bad thing. Most people misquote the scripture and say that money is the root of all evil. It’s not. Money doesn’t have emotions. It’s not good or bad.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
I Timothy 6:10 NIV
If we make money a god and don’t put it in the right perspective, we’ll never have any. That’s not God’s will for us or our families.
If we’re going to become better off financially than we currently are, we’re going to have to change our way of thinking. We have what we have now because that’s the way we think.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
III John 2
Everybody loves to quote this scripture because it means that God wants us to prosper. But it says that prosperity starts in our souls. We need to know the difference between God’s way of thinking and the world’s way of thinking when it comes to money, and we’re going to have to change our thinking to line up with the Word of God.
Another thing we need to do is also learn to enjoy what we have. Instead of complaining about what we don’t have— let’s find a way to enjoy and be grateful for something that we do have. I’m not downplaying the practical needs that money fills in our lives, but if we raise it to the level of “the solution to everything” then we are making it a kind of idol and that goes against God’s instruction to us. It’s God that will supply all our need. Money is not God and we need to be careful not to make it one in our lives.
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LIE #3
3. We’ll give more when we make more.
Many people fall for this lie because they think they don’t have anything to spare or even to give at all. Remember the widow’s mites in Mark 12:41-44. In Jesus’ eyes, this woman’s gift was greater than any gift because she gave what she had.
The word giving is in the Bible 2,162 times. It’s important to be a giver. Giving keeps the pipes from Heaven unclogged. Giving keeps us from being stingy and choking off the flow of blessing.
God is going to supply seed to the sower. Once we put our hands to giving, God will increase us.
Yes, God will give you much so that you can give away much, and when we take your gifts to those who need them they will break out into thanksgiving and praise to God for your help. So, two good things happen as a result of your gifts—those in need are helped, and they overflow with thanks to God.
II Corinthians 9:11-12 TLB
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:7
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Luke 6:38
A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
Proverbs 22:9 NIV
Being a giver keeps the pipes clean.
We’re going to have to get into the habit of giving. We’re going to have to listen to God so we can sow seed, plant financial crops, and bring in the harvest.
Start wherever you can. Look for ways to be a blessing. I know people who use coupons to get discounts on products when they go grocery shopping, so they can donate those items and their money goes further. That’s just one example, but there are many ways to give no matter what phase of life you’re in. Give your time, give your resources, and give your best. Don’t wait until you feel you can afford to give. Be generous with what you have now.
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