If you want to succeed in anything, the best place to start is by learning from those who do it very well. If you want to succeed with money, it will pay to learn everything that you can from the wealthiest being in the universe.

God owns everything (even the things that we think are ours), and He created the laws that govern the financial world. Because He’s a good father, He wants to see us succeed with money; because He is a good teacher, He shows us exactly how to do so.

It may seem like there’s a lot of mystery to prosperity, but there’s really no mystery at all. Prosperity is a fruit of righteousness, and God wants us each to enjoy it. Very often, though, we don’t get things right because we don’t ask Him how we should handle our money. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Put your trust in God, and He will teach you how to succeed.

We see this principle clearly in Psalm 25:12-13.

Who, then, are those who fear the Lord?
He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
 They will spend their days in prosperity,
and their descendants will inherit the land.

This passage gives us some great encouragement. God promises that those of us who fear Him will spend our days in prosperity, and that those blessings will extend to future generations as well. The first lesson here is obvious — prosperity and blessing come from walking in right relationship with God (we’ve talked about that before). But there’s a second principle at work here as well: The second half of verse 12 tells us that God will instruct us in the ways that we should choose.

I love this. Not only does my God want me to prosper, or promise that I’ll prosper, but He commits that He will teach me how to do it. I don’t have to wander through my financial life in an ignorant stupor, hoping that things will work out. I don’t have to make blind guesses about my career, my spending habits, my family budget or my retirement plan. God will instruct me in the ways I should choose.

God’s instruction can come in a number of different ways. A whole boatload of it comes from scripture. Studying the Bible, we can learn a lot about hard work, budgeting, saving money and avoiding debt. In fact, one of our chief goals on this site is to help point you toward the excellent principles that the Bible teaches about financial management. God never intended to leave us guessing; His word is a road map to prosperity in all areas of life.

It’s important, though, to look for God’s instruction in other ways as well. Scripture gives us a lot of great fundamental principles for making financial decisions, but there’s no Bible verse that will tell you what career field to choose or whether to start a new business venture. That’s not to say that God doesn’t have answers for you in those areas; it just means that He wants you to seek Him to find them out. Spend time in prayer, and ask Him to open doors, to speak to you, and to instruct you specifically in what paths to choose.

There’s no replacing the value of prayer, fasting and listening to the voice of God in our hearts. Sometimes, the best teaching and advice will be the things that He speaks to us in a still, small voice.

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Photo by Eric James Sarmiento. Used under Creative Commons License.