Faith: Money, money, money
What is your attitude toward money?
Do you despise it?
Hate it?
Love it?
See the need for it?
Don't care less?
Have no feelings at all?
My attitude toward money has been an ongoing topic for me.
Unfortunately, I had some bad experiences with money in the past, causing me to put way too much security in it.
If you are also dealing with giving money too much control in your life as well, this blog is written for you.
Money is neutral
For my Born to Fly platform, I've read the book Thank God for Bitcoin. One of the things that spoke to me from that book was the phrase that money is neutral.
Money is just a tool. It's a means to an end.
It doesn't want anything from you.
It's just what it is: coins and paper or a digital number.
It's your relationship with money that makes a difference.
What status do you give it?
What role do you let it play in your life?
What power do you give it?
That's where I mess up time and time again.
Doubting God
It's quite simple for me why I put money on a throne: I don't trust God enough at times.
Because I've chosen a path of entrepreneurship, money is on my mind a lot.
From "Will I have enough to cover the bills this month?" to "What fun things will I do with this huge assignment while at the same time making sure I steward it well."
The incoming stream of money is vital to a business's health, if it isn't there, I might as well quit.
And yet, I haven't built a steady stream so far.
It annoys me.
It makes me doubt myself.
And it certainly makes me doubt what God has promised: I am of more value than the sparrows, I should not fear that He takes care of me (Matthew 10:29-31).
We know God promised He will provide what we need. We know.
We just don't always believe it.
I'm glad God isn't angry about that. He wouldn't have put so many verses (2350) in the Bible about money if He knew it wasn't going to be an issue. (There are 500 verses on faith and prayer)
God does act on my attitude toward money, though.
Every time when I give money too much power, God is allowing something to happen. It is frustrating, but apparently, that's the only way I learn how to take out this deeply rooted wrong relationship with money.
A verse that helps me to stay on the right track is Hebrews 13:5:
Keep your lifestyle free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For God Himself has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you," (TLV)
It tells me that:
→ I should never ever be motivated to do something for the money;
→ Lack of money, or love for money, should never cause a reason to doubt God's provision or to put my security in it.
Dismantling the king on the throne hurts sometimes
If you're spending too much time on Netflix, it's best to cancel the subscription. That hurts a little bit at the beginning, but you'll be happy to spend those hours on useful things.
The same is true for anything that you're spending too much time on or putting too much security in.
I know that I have to dismantle the money-king several times in my life. It happens that I might have done it a couple of months ago, and yet he still got back on the throne. The throne is only meant for One King, and having Him there is an ongoing process.
I can contribute to that to invest in building my relationship with God.
But when I fail in doing that or I wander a little bit, God is there to pull me back. Sometimes that hurts a little, sometimes it hurts a lot and causes a lot of frustrations as we don't see why God has to do it in a specific way.
I am learning more and more that I do not always understand God's ways but I can try to by knowing Him better.
Test your relationship with money
You know whether your relationship with money is right.
You can tell if you give it too much control—there's only one question I need to ask:
If God asked you to give all of your money away, would you do it?
If your answer is no or there's a long pause—full of doubt—then you're not there yet.
Just like me.
Fortunately, there's hope. There's patience. There's forgiveness.
I don't have to do it alone.
I can surrender, fail, and surrender again.
That's how we learn. That's how we get better at following God, giving Him full control.