August 24 | What Is God’s Purpose for Money?
Deuteronomy 8:18, “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
God’s purpose for money is to give you resources to provide for your family, the church and help the needy. Oftentimes people can fall into a trap with money and allow it to become their idol. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” A.B. Simpson wrote, “There is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and children if you do not value these things or ones for themselves.”
Money tests your spiritual maturity because it can either be a blessing in your life or it can be a source of temptation. Your love for God will determine whether you handle money right.
The best way to break the love of money off of your heart is to consistently give tithes and offerings. The word tithe means, “a tenth.” Someone who gives God ten percent of his or her total income is a “tither.” An “offering” according to the Bible is anything you financially “offer to God after your tithes.” For example, giving offerings to missions or Christian run charities.
Towards the end of the Old Testament and the era of the Mosaic Law, the Old Covenant, God shared his heart concerning money. He said that His people were robbing Him and were under a curse. The only way for them to break the curse and see the windows of heaven open up was for them to give their tithes and offerings to God’s storehouse.
Malachi 3:8-10 reads, “8 Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse —your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
Jesus reiterated this principle of “God coming first” in monies in Matthew 6:33 when He said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Therefore, as today’s passage states, it is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth for the sake of His covenant (i.e., “His Kingdom”). Included in God’s covenant (or Kingdom) are our families and the poor. God wants us to be blessed to be a blessing to those around us.
Use money as a tool- just like you would use a hammer or screwdriver. You don't love your tools but you appreciate them for what they can do. The same is true with money, don’t love it- respect and appreciate the good it can do for the Kingdom of God!
Reflection
Action
- Repent if you have allowed yourself to love money by not being faithful in your tithes and offerings.
- Be a consistent tither and giver of offerings.
- Use wisdom in budgeting your money. Consider the following example; (1) Give 10% in tithes, (2) Give 5% in offerings to missions or Christian charities, (3) Pay 10% in taxes, (4) Save 5% and (5) Wisely spend the remaining 70%.