MONEY ANSWERETH EVERYTHING

in Articles By Mccuon on 29 Jan 2015

Is money the answer to all things? Definitely the wisest man that ever lived was not foolish when making this statement. We are living in a world where almost everything that matters is money.

MONEY BELONGS TO GOD
It is very important to realize that as the Bible says, that:

“The Earth and the fullness thereof is His” Psalm 24:1 “The silver and gold belongs to God” Haggai 2:8. 

“Thousand hills and the cattle belong to God” Psalm 50:10.  “The Bible also says that God can give power to us to get wealth” Deuteronomy 8:18

The Bible has mentioned several principles or spiritual laws to get richer or to increase our financial resources to any extent.  Some of these principles are listed below:  Sowing or investing in the Kingdom of God. Giving Tithes and offerings to God according to the Bible Giving alms to the poor. By believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth that all things are possible, if we believe the promises of God and meet the conditions attached to it. 

By doing what we have to when we act on faith (faith without work is dead) when we do our part God will definitely do his part. By planning, imagining, designing, dreaming, seeing visions. By thinking creatively, and coming up with ideas. By forsaking or losing for the sake of the gospel. By writing and displaying our desires and visions. By confessing what we believe that we will receive. By building God’s Kingdom.

MONEY IS LIFE, LIFE IS TIME AND TIME IS MONEY
the number of years that a person lives is his life span. Therefore, Time is Life and Life is Time. The longer a person lives the greater is the time that he will have. How long a person lives is not so important as how he spent his time, which is his life.

In order to fully understand the relationship between Life, Time and Money, we should understand the following facts:

Money can be earned during one’s life.  Life represents the time that one has to make money. Money represents the results achieved in one’s life. Time can be wasted or used productively to make money. When a person spends money he is using what he has earned in his life time. When a person has savings to live for a certain length of time, he can get released from his work and use that time as he wishes.

If a person makes enough money for the rest of his life, he can spend the rest of his life as he wishes, without doing any work. When a person borrows money and spends it, he becomes a slave in this world to work for a certain length of time to repay the loan out of his surplus income which is beyond his normal needs. Spending money literally means spending the time and spending ones time means spending one’s life Time is as precious as life, and so also money is as precious as life. Time can be equated to life and the life can be equated to time.

MONEY CAN BE MULTIPLIED THROUGH GIVING & INVESTMENT
 a.    Multiplication of Money by Giving

Giving is a Spiritual Act and a Godly Act.  As a person grows spiritually, he will grow in love and as he grows in love, he will increase his giving.  Giving is not merely a physical act, neither is it just an intellectual act.

The Bible says that by giving according to Biblical Principles will be receiving back much more than what we give.  In other words, when we give as the Bible directs and commands to give, we will be actually investing in the Kingdom of God.  It’s worth taking a look at some of the scriptures in the Bible on this subject, which is mentioned below:

• “Give and it shall be given back to you, a good measure, pressed down and shaken together, will men give unto your bosom” Luke 6:38
• “Bring all your tithes into the store house, and prove me now, saith the Lord of Host, if I will not open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” Malachi 3:10
• “If you sow sparingly, you shall also receive sparingly.  If you sow bountifully, you will also receive bountifully”. II Corinthians 9:6
• “In the same measure you give, it shall be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38
• “Be not deceived, God has not mocked; what you sow is what you reap.”  Galatians 6:7
• “If any man leaves his house… or land for my sake and the gospels, he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time…. And in the world to come … ” (The return for giving anything for the sake of the gospel will be more than 10,000%) Mark 10:29-30

We should further note that the Bible has clearly indicated giving for different reasons, on different occasions and in different ways:

• Tithing (Giving one tenth of all the blessings that you receive from God / all of our income will increase)
• Seed Faith Offering (Giving an offering in advance when we pray for a special blessing)
• Thanksgiving Offering (After we receive an answer to our prayer, giving an offering to the God, as an expression of our thankfulness, in a tangible way)
• First Fruit Offering (Whenever we receive a special kind of blessing which will be repeated again and again like the first month’s salary on a new job, the entire amount should be given as the First Fruit.)

b. Multiplication of Money by Investing

It is both a Spiritual and a Natural law to receive some returns when we invest some money.  Like a farmer knows the law of sowing and reaping, all businessmen know the law of investing and getting a return or a profit.  So it is important to make investments in various ways to get profits and returns.  There is no point in blaming God, the Government, our employer or any one for that matter except ourselves for not being a good steward or a good financial manager so far as our assets and earnings are concerned. 

It is important to have a financial portfolio in each family consisting of the monthly budget, savings account, investment plans, starting a profit making enterprise to increase the income or some additional job to have a supplementary income.

Buying lottery tickets and gambling is not an acceptable and a good way of investing.  Borrowing can be done only for investment purposes and not for consumption.

MONEY IS NEEDED TO DO THE MINISTRY OR TO SERVE GOD
Again talking about doing anything spiritual, doing some kind of ministry or serving God, no matter what ones calling is, lack of money will hinder, restrict or obstruct whatever that person desires to do for the extension of God’s Kingdom, and for the propagation of the Gospel. 

It is needless to say that the servant of God ministering all over the world, can expand his ministries several times, with a larger financial budget than he has right now.  Again we are talking about the need for more money to do the ministry.  Some individuals set a goal to build hundred churches, while others may set a goal to build one thousand churches, during their lifetime. 

The different numbers of churches that they would like to build depends very much upon their financial capacity, and the kind of goals they set and their faith or the capability to get the amount of funds, which will be required, to build one hundred churches as opposed to one thousand churches.

MONEY SHOULD BE PROPERLY MANAGED

A good Stewardship of all fixed and liquid assets is a biblical principle.  Several biblical principles and business management has been covered in the earlier sections.  Stewardship creates accountability to every one of us, for every talent, dollar, article, piece of property, and anything of value.  We cannot just store things indefinitely without a specific purpose.  The striking illustration given by Jesus Christ about a master who distributed one talent, two talents and five talents, and then asked to give account for it when he came back will expound this point very well.

It is God’s desire and wish above all things that we all should prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers (III John 2).  Ultimately we should know that the purpose of money and things of value which are available in this world not only to the public at large in certain measures, but it is available to the God’s children and servants until their needs are fully met and they have a surplus to help others around.  We should underestimate the value of money and material things in not only meeting our daily needs for also to accomplish and fulfill God’s purposes and particularly in establishing and extending God’s Kingdom.

Money can be earned and obtained without any limits, through Creativity, Skills and Labor in one sense, and also by keeping God’s commandments, serving God, pitying the poor, building God’s Kingdom, spreading the gospel, giving tithes and offerings according to biblical principles, being good stewards etc.