Managing God’s Money God’s Way

Living as God’s Money Manager

How should Christians live in away that honors God.

In a previous article (Can a Christian Be a Millionaire) we looked at who owns the money under your control.

We discovered that all the money under your control belongs to God and your role is to manage God’s money the way God wants it managed. Not the way you want it managed.

When it comes to managing money, a difficult question for many Christians to answer is, “What is God’s will? How do I know what God wants?”

Perhaps this will help you …

There is a common thread that ties together Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. It’s the story of God’s Heart and His Mission, that He begins revealing in Genesis and come to its realization in Revelation.

Here is a brief summary of that story.

Your purpose is to Glorify God in everything you do. (1 Cor 10:31)

How is God Glorified? By there being people from every ethnic group of people in the world around the throne in Heaven worshiping God forever and ever. (Rev 5:9 + 7:9–10)

How does that happen? By God’s Name being worshipped from the rising to the setting of the sun by people from every ethnic group of people in the world. (Mal 1:11)

How does that happen? By there being disciples of Jesus made among every group of people in the world. (Mt 28:12–28)

How does that happen? By God’s people, God’s ambassadors, going to every group of people and sharing that God is reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus Christ.

(2 Cor 5:17–20)

How does that happen? By God’s people being empowered by the Holy and Spirit. Then starting from where they are and working their way outward until all groups of people in the world have been reached. (Acts 1:8)

How does that happen? By Followers of Jesus denying themselves, taking up their cross daily, and following Jesus through obedience by doing what He says to do.

(Lk 9:23, Jn 14:21–24)

In summary … Your mission in life is to “Glorify God by making disciples among every ethnic group of people in the world.” (1 Cor 10:31, Mt 28:18–20, Acts 1:8)

Since this is your God-given mission on this earth as a disciple of Jesus, then it seems to me, it logical follows that God has given you His resources to manage to carryout your mission for making disciples among every group of people in the world. The reason God blesses with a lot or a few resources is for the same the purpose, that all the people of the world. Psalm 67 appears to support this point.

How do you go about practically living this out day-to-day regarding managing God’s money? This applies to an individual, a family, and a Christian owned business.

Try this …

A. You and your family (your business leadership team), take some time to be alone with God. Have paper and a writing utensil with you.

B. Start with asking God for wisdom to set up your budget the way He wants it. Then trust that He’s given you that wisdom and you’re making your budget decisions with that wisdom.

“ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” (James 1:5–8)

C. Review the passages in this article together along with the brief summary of Genesis to Revelation above.

D. Listen to what God says to the best your ability to understand what God’s telling you to do with His money and resources.

E. Write down what He says. He may tell you changes your need to make to or things you need to do to educate yourself about what He’s doing around the world. Just be open to whatever He’s saying. Be careful not to reject a thought because it will be difficult for you or seems impossible.

F. Setup your budget according to what God has shown you.

G. Enjoy the ride with God!

An excellent filter to help you as you work through your budget with God is to ask yourself for each item in the budget … “What’s in God’s best interest here?” Then do whatever is your answer.

Again, I know, this is a different perspective on money, resources, investments, and having things that we don’t hear.

Is living this way always easy?

From my personal experience, the answer is “No, not always.’

You will find little support in Christian circles for this. Most will see you as crazy.

Personally, our budget is tight. We don’t have a lot of money put away for retirement.

We’ve given way more towards God’s-Heart from Genesis to Revelation than we’ve saved. Trusting that God will do what He says in Matthew 6:33 when we put His Kingdom and righteousness first.

Gotta be honest though, seeing friends my age and younger retiring, sometimes makes me question my decisions.

Somedays doubt creeps into my thinking, “Have I missed the boat? Have I blown it? Have I failed my family?”

When I find myself having these thoughts, that’s when I have to return to the basics.

I walk myself through these basics to remind myself of why I’ve made the decisions I’ve made.

1. Who am I trusting to provide for us? Me and my abilities? Or the One who owns everything and has unlimited resources? (Matthew 6:33)

2. I walk through the 7 points of how I’m confident the Bible is true and I can trust it. How I can be confident God will do what He says? The 7 points are …

• The time gap between when the New Testament was written and when we have first copies of it.
• The number of manuscripts of the New Testament.
• That Jesus repeatedly referred to the Old Testament to prove He was the Messiah
• The transformation of Paul and what He suffered for following Jesus
• The martyrdom of the disciples and their refusal to deny Jesus
• The improbability of just 8 messianic prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one person
• My personal experiences with following Jesus

From my personal experience and from working with others, there will come times where doubt creeps into one’s thinking. It’s when this happens that a Christian’s must have stakes they’ve placed in the ground and can easily return to when doubt happens.

If they don’t have the stakes, they are likely to walk away from following Jesus and make bad decisions.

I want to encourage you, if you don’t have these stakes, put in the required effort to get them. If you do have them, work to make sure you can easily recall them when needed.

Until All Hear,

Brad