Jesus made it plain when He said, “You cannot serve both God and money.” Yet many people serve money without ever making a conscious choice to do so. By not learning how to manage our money, we become servants to our finances. So many of us have a heart that wants to boldly serve God, but we end up serving money by default—simply because of our situation in life.
As we learn how to manage and control our finances, we will start mastering our money. And the thing that I like the most is that in the process of Money Mastery, it becomes possible to learn how to make money. We can learn how to cause an increase of finances in our lives so that we can fully serve God.
I remember the first time I realized I didn’t have to think about my monthly or annual budget. It was a freeing experience. Now I’m not saying that I don’t ever have to manage money; I just no longer have to think about whether or not I’m going to make it from week to week or month to month or, for that matter, year to year.
The best part of mastering my money is that I now have so much more time to focus on true riches that are only found in God. I also have the financial freedom to turn around and immediately do what God says. It’s wonderful! And it’s not impossible to get there. Anyone can do this!
The Middle Man
Money is a representative of a certain quantity of corn or other commodity. It is so much warmth, so much bread. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
If we’re going to learn how to master money, we first need to define and understand what money is. So, what is money? In simple terms, money is the middle man. I love this quote by Emerson: Money is really just a representative of other things. It is corn, movie night, and diamond rings.
In reality, money replaces the need for us to carry around chickens and bushels of apples to buy things. Thankfully, we don’t have to bring a quarter of a cow to the grocery store today to buy our Thanksgiving meal. We have this freedom because money acts as the currency in the middle. In its truest sense, money is our medium of exchange. We don’t get paid for work (at least in the U.S.) in the form of apples or chickens; we get paid in the form of money—and that’s a good thing!
Money is also a representation of what we trade for our time and value. We work; we get paid. In other words, we put our life’s energy into our work, and in return, we receive money. Money is also the standard placed on the value of items. Therefore, we are able to take an item and assign it a dollar sign with a specific amount attached to it. This tells us what the item costs and more importantly, what the item is worth.
I think when we put money in this light, we can suddenly see how it’s not really that big of a deal. It’s not something that much emotion should be directed toward. Loving or hating money is neither here nor there. It’s what we do with money that becomes worth talking about.
The Good Samaritan’s Resources
“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions, he had money as well.” —Margaret Thatcher, UK Prime Minister
Sometimes we want to do good for God—or for people or for other things—but we are hindered by our lack of resources. If we don’t have any resources, we’re stuck. As Thatcher said, the Good Samaritan didn’t just have good intentions, he had resources that empowered him to take care of a person in need. We should have that same goal in mind when we seek to obtain more resources.
Years ago, I was on vacation with my wife in Hong Kong. During our stay, I found an old bookstore. I began thumbing through random books and came across this quote by Felix Dennis:
“I was put on earth to get rich, to collect the money that already had my name on it, and then give it all away.”
Wow, was all I could think!
The Law of Connection says that God has a treasure chest of divine connections for each person. These divine connections are Kairos moments or God-opportune moments. Finding this quote in Hong Kong was a divine connection for me.
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:19
I believe God has prepared a great capacity for every person on this planet. We each have a purpose on this earth. We also have resources and money out there that God has readied for us. He has a treasure chest of divine connections for each one of us, and the Bible makes it clear that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He will do for one what He will do for another.
When we see people with great resources and remember that God is no respecter of persons, it means that there are great resources out there for anyone. If there are resources for Billy, there are resources for you. Somewhere in the world, there is money with your name on it. And I don’t know about you, but if it’s got my name on it and God put it there for me, I’m going after it!
Everything, however, hinges on the last part of this quote: “And then give it all away.” It’s not about heaping wealth upon ourselves, right? It’s not just about us having barns. In Luke 12, we see that it’s okay for us to have some barns, but it’s not okay to build bigger barns. Of course, God wants us to have resources; He wants us to be blessed. But the idea is that we are blessed so that we can be a blessing. (Genesis 12:2)
“I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel.” – Isaiah 45:3
Notice that it says, “the hidden riches of secret places.” There are some hidden riches in secret places. This means that there’s some money out there that has your name on it!
There’s no reason for the world or the wicked to have it all. I found the money with my name on it, and now I’m at a place where I can give it away.
I want to help you get to that place also. I want you to open your eyes and see “the hidden riches of secret places”. It’s time for the body of Christ to let the eyes of our understanding be unveiled so we are able to see, understand, and know that we can be the masters of our money!
