God’s Plan for My Money

Following the Bible’s ways of handling money changed my financial life

Everywhere I went, in everything I read and every conversation I had, the world was trying to tell me how to manage my finances. And it was completely different from God’s plan for my money.

Advertising is everywhere. I saw it while walking through airports, watching TV, and reading magazines. Marketers told me that to live a rewarding life, I needed to eat certain foods, drive certain cars and and vacation in certain places. And financial planning services try to get my business by using attractive words like “retirement,” “future,” and “confidence.”

There’s nothing wrong with advertisement. But as I began to study God’s plan for my money, I realized that the advice the world had given me about money was pretty rotten.

The advice the world had given me about money was pretty rotten.

It’s easy to find evidence of how the world’s financial thinking can lead to greed, poverty, debt and slavery. So what’s the alternative? Well, God has a plan for your money. And it’s not as complicated as you might think.

Here’s an overview of God’s plan for my money and yours. It’s a plan that comes from Scripture, and outlines the key things that God intends for us to do with money.

God’s Plan for My Money

1. Providing for ourselves and our families. This is at the top of the list, because God says that a person that doesn’t provide for his family is “worse than an unbeliever.” This is the most fundamental thing we must do with our money. If we don’t use the resources God gives to provide for the people who depend on us, we’ve veered off course from the beginning.

2. Tithing to support the local church and build the Kingdom of God. Sadly, this is a practice that has fallen out of use today; even many evangelical Christians don’t even give the 10% tithe of their income that God requires. It’s a shame, too, because our churches depend on tithe money to continue their work in our communities, not to mention foreign missions and other ministries.

3. Giving to the poor, helping our neighbors and being a blessing. We live in the most financially blessed society in the history of the world, but many of us are quick to squander the blessings on ourselves. That’s not God’s plan, though; the New Testament makes it clear that we are blessed to be a blessing, to give to the poor, and to” be generous on every occasion.”

4. Building an inheritance for future generations. There’s nothing wrong with accumulating wealth and passing it on to your children. In fact, the more financial security and power you give them, the more effective they can be in continuing the work of the Kingdom. And God says that a large inheritance is a legacy of a righteous life.

When I started spending my money this way, it changed everything about my financial life.

5. Enjoying life. God wants you to enjoy your money. The Bible says that He “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” But this is the last part of the plan, and not the first. If we’ve provided, tithed, blessed and built, then it’s okay to enjoy. Getting this out of order, though, can wreck your whole financial life.

That’s God’s Master Plan for Your Money in a nutshell. When I started spending my money this way, it changed everything about my financial life. Are you ready to give it a try?