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HABIT ELEVEN Understand Personal Finance How we handle personal finances more accurately indicates where our values lie than anything else. Money is the means of exchange we use during our temporary time on earth. Our uses of money and the value we place on it indicate the degree to which we have placed our affection on things above and how well we have integrated biblical teachings into our own personal worldviews. Our use of money shows us what is important to us, whether we are controlled by heavenly values or earthly ones. If we see clearly, we will appreciate the much greater value of our heavenly investments, learn how to side-step avoidable losses, and enjoy God’s ample provisions during our temporary time on earth. By chapter’s end, we should be better able to evaluate our use of money in terms of an eternal value system and biblical worldview. A biblical worldview will help us realize the greatness of our wealth stored up in heaven. Money and its use is temporary and unworthy of being our first priority. On the other hand, though we use money only temporarily, we still should learn how to use it well—how to master it, rather than serve it, and use it for noble, eternal purposes, as well as to our advantage in the present life. A holy and biblical life style and the proper application of practical biblical instructions regarding money can lead us to both heavenly and material advantages. People’s habits reveal their value systems and we can notice two possible imbalances: some people are so heavenly-minded they are little earthly good; others are so earthly-minded they are little heavenly good. In my childhood, I knew people who thought that having little money was a sign of godliness. Now that I live in the United States again, after many years abroad, I find that for some, material prosperity has become a symbol of godliness. Both these imbalances give us a distorted impression of God. Eyes on Heaven There was a time in the life of the church of my youth when heavenly promises meant a lot. In those days, we had a more biblical, rather non-materialistic worldview in which investment in heaven was preeminent. We believed in delayed gratification, sought things that are above, and valued teachings like Mathew 6:19-21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Most of us would not think that gathering money and focusing attention on it is the opposite of serving God, but this is the Bible’s teaching. “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24). One can have both, but one cannot serve both. A choice is necessary on this point—Jesus eliminated the middle ground. I have been surprised by the number of times a materialistic desire that had crept unknowingly into my heart has interfered with my daily prayer and personal determination to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Though I have chosen to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first, almost daily I have to make some new life-related application of that decision. I have found that I make better earthly decisions when I make them from a heavenly perspective, and understand earthly finances better when viewed with God’s eternal reward system in mind. • End Of Preview • Click
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