What does Christ’s resurrection have to do with your finances?

Today a billion Christians all around the globe will join together in celebrating Christ’s resurrection from the grave and His conquering of sin and death. We’ll take communion, we’ll break bread together, and we’ll thank our Savior for the sacrifice that He made to set us free from the sin that entangles us.

For each person, that freedom means something different. I want to encourage you today that if you’re struggling with financial problems, the power of Christ can help you find freedom in your finances.

There are all sorts of ways that money can make slaves of us — debt, selfishness, greed, envy, etc. — and that slavery can stand in the way of us living the lives that God has called us to. Far too many Christians find themselves unable to do things like tithe, give or build an inheritance for future generations because of the financial habits that they have built throughout their lives. When we fail personally in these areas, the Kingdom as a whole suffers, and so does the world.

But this isn’t a message of condemnation — it’s a message of hope. Just has Christ’s work on the cross and his overcoming of death set you free from the power of sin in your life, the freedom that He purchased by His blood can give you the keys to unlock the financial shackles in your life. After all, the cross wasn’t just about sin; it was about purchasing freedom in every sense. Check out what Galatians 5:1 has to say about freedom in Christ:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

It is for freedom that we have been set free. That means freedom in every way: Freedom from sin. Freedom from condemnation. Freedom from legalism. Freedom from addiction. Freedom in your marriage. Freedom in your relationships. Freedom in your finances.

If you’re struggling with debt, poverty, selfishness, envy or greed — if you find yourself being motivated or identified completely by money — then you’re wrestling with financial slavery. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. There is freedom from every chain that binds us. God is king over this world and all its wealth, and He is also king over our hearts.

So, how do you start down the road to freedom? Here are some steps to get you going.

1) Acknowledge the Problem

The first step to healing is always acknowledging that you have a problem. Unfortunately this can be really tough to do when it comes to money, because personal finance is something that we don’t talk about a lot in polite society. And if you look around at your peers, they may be struggling with the same things that you are, making it seem normal. But financial slavery is not normal in the Kingdom of God. Take an honest stock of your life to find the areas where you’re living in financial slavery.

2) Look to the Cross

If financial freedom were something that you could accomplish on your own, you probably would have done it by now. But it’s not. Money problems aren’t just issues with income or financial philosophies — they’re rooted in spiritual problems, and spiritual problems require spiritual solutions. Fortunately, Christ provided the ultimate solution for every spiritual problem when He died in our place and then rose again. To overcome your financial problems, look first to Him for the solution to your heart problems. Trust foremost in the work that He has already done.

3) Learn from the Word

There’s an incredible amount of financial wisdom to be found in the Bible, and studying what scripture teaches about money can go a long way toward helping us achieve freedom in our finances. We’ve written a couple hundred articles about those teachings on this site, and there are many more that we haven’t yet covered. Christ set you free in your spirit, but to achieve total freedom you must also renew your mind and learn to see your financial life the way that God sees it.

4) Be Diligent

The final step of financial freedom is the application. Once your heart has been healed and your mind renewed, you still have to do the work of paying off debt, saving money, learning to give, etc. I won’t lie to you: Those things can be incredibly difficult. But they are not impossible, and if we are faithful to do them with diligence, they never fail to finish the work of freedom. Apply yourself wholeheartedly to the hard work of financial liberty, and you’ll find yourself out of slavery once and for all.

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Photo by Luz Adriana Villa. Used under Creative Commons License.