Author: richabbaholyabba

Why Money Matters to Christians

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

Luke 16:11

Money matters to Christians? It sounds so counter-intuitive. However, this verse is precisely why money matters to Christians — or, at least why it should matter. Not because money is important but, rather, because it shouldn’t be important at all. The verse forms part of a wider text, all about money and how believers should manage it in their personal lives. In fact, there is so much to digest in Luke chapter sixteen that it is really quite easy to miss the powerful truth in verse eleven altogether.

The chapter starts off with the parable of the shrewd manager. This is, itself, probably one of the more difficult of Jesus’ parables to understand. In verses one through eight, Jesus tells the story of a manager who appears to have been wasteful with his master’s possessions.

Jesus told his disciples: ‘There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’

Luke 16:1-2

In short, the manager is about to get fired for wasting his master’s possessions. With his impending dismissal looming, the manager seeks out some of his master’s debtors and writes down their debts in order to curry favour with them. This in the hope that, after he is fired, he will have friends in the community who will help him out, in the same way he helped them out with their debts.

The problem is that this manager was inherently dishonest, forgiving debts that were not his to forgive. Yet, instead of having him thrown in jail for the fraud he had clearly committed, the master commends him for acting shrewdly. This part of the parable has always confused me. Why would Jesus commend an act of such blatant dishonesty?

The best explanation I have heard for this is that the master is not commending the dishonesty itself. Instead, he is acknowledging the smart way in which the manager looked out for his own interests. Even though the manager’s actions were illegal and at the master’s expense, the master is still able to show a grudging respect for his employee’s ingenuity.

In fact, Jesus offers a quiet nod to this interpretation of the text in verse eight when he says, ‘For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.’

In other words, we can still acknowledge the shrewd manager’s street-smarts without condoning his dishonest behaviour.

The Reason Money Matters to Christians

The reason money matters to Christians

Jesus moves straight on from this parable into verses nine and ten…

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much

Luke 16:9-10

In essence, this is the lesson Jesus wants us to learn from the above parable. His instruction is that we use worldly wealth to gain friends for ourselves. This is why money matters to Christians. Who are these friends? They are the souls we lead to Christ in our time here on earth — the friends we will see again in heaven. This can be achieved through sharing the gospel with our friends and neighbours. However, we should also employ our funds and resources to that end, according to Luke chapter 16.

We do this by using the money we earn, and the resources with which God has entrusted us, to support either ourselves or other ministries and missionaries in an effort to spread the gospel both in our communities and across the globe. Even when we are not directly involved in those enterprises, it is our support that enables the church to reach people in far-flung places with the gospel. We may not see the direct results of our giving here on earth, but it is those friends who will be there one day to welcome us when we leave this earth and enter into eternal dwellings. It is in this context that money matters to Christians.

As I thought about it, I came to understand how nicely this lesson actually ties in with the preceding parable. Who is the master — or the rich man — in Jesus parable of the shrewd manager? Of course, it is God himself. So then… who is the manager?

You and I are the managers in the context of this passage. And the Master has given us:

  • Income and resources and
  • The job of managing said income & resources…

… for his Kingdom. As such, how we manage our money matters to Christians!

Now each of us has a question to answer. How well have we managed the income and resources with which God has blessed us?

money matters to Christians

Many of us, like the dishonest manager, may find ourselves accused of wasting our master’s possessions. How so? Easy! When I consider how much money I have earned over a lifetime versus how much I have given to God’s kingdom, the numbers are actually quite pitiful. The trouble is I never realized money matters to Christians. I am sure that many believers, like me, have found themselves so financially stretched that they couldn’t spare any of their income for Kingdom purposes at all.

My heart goes out to sincere believers who find themselves in so much financial stress that they genuinely don’t have so much as a dime to spare for charity or Kingdom giving. I can relate. I have, personally, spent years in financial struggle with barely any money and certainly none left over for Kingdom giving. However, when I look back on those years, I can now see how unwise I was in managing the little I had. Poor career choices, opportunities squandered, and money I wasted in bad spending habits all contributed to my financial state at the time. Not that I lived an extravagant lifestyle. I simply made poor choices that left me in a constant state of financial struggle. All because I never realized money matters to Christians.

In short, I was wasteful with my master’s possessions. How does this happen? For me, it all started because I laboured under the misapprehension that the money I earned and the things I owned belonged to me, and not to God. Only when we come to understand that all we have and all we own belongs to our creator can we grasp why money matters to Christians. We are not managing it for ourselves!

The truth is God blesses us with the money we earn and the things we own. All of it. He is the master and we, his servants, are called to manage those funds on his behalf. Yes, of course, this money is there for us to pay the rent as well as to feed and clothe ourselves and our children. However we are also called to manage these resources wisely so that we have funds available for kingdom-giving as well as seed that we can sow for future harvest, which will enable us to increase our kingdom-giving over time.

Sadly, for many years, in my walk as a Christian, I wasted my master’s possessions. Instead of setting aside even a little and giving to the Kingdom… Instead of saving as I ought and investing my money so that it would grow like seed and produce a future harvest… I spent every penny I earned, living from pay-check to pay-check. Consequently, every time I received an increase, that money was already lost to expenses and debt I had racked up over the preceding year.

As such, I find the words in Luke 16:10 deeply challenging. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

What is the very little, and what is the much? The answer lies in verse eleven. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth — the very little — who will trust you with true riches? The much! This is why how we manage our money matters to Christians.

Jesus is not talking about volumes of wealth here. He is not saying that we need to be found trustworthy with a little money before we can be trusted with much money. In the context of this verse, all our worldly wealth is the very little. That is all we have, and all we earn. The very little!

Conversely, Kingdom riches is what Jesus meant when he spoke about trusting us with true riches — the much in Luke 16:10. It was a preacher who showed me the frightening truth in this verse. He did this by way of illustration, using his own life and ministry as an example.

In his sermon, he shared how he had long felt the call to ministry. However, he was shackled by his monthly expenses and could see no way to fulfil this calling as he had a relatively high-powered job and a move into ministry would mean a massive pay-cut. He had a family to care for and a mortgage to pay. Bills mounted up each month. As such, he could not see his way clear to enter the ministry as he would never be able to keep up with his monthly costs.

So it was that he languished in a career he did not enjoy, knowing full well that he was not living the life to which God had called him. On top of this, the massive stress of his job left him plagued by depression and anxiety. Without realising it, he had fallen into a trap. While he had never thought of himself as the wasteful manager, this is what he had become. The fact that he was unable to get a grip on his personal finances proved to be the very thing that prevented from embracing his true calling to ministry. He never understood how money matters to Christians.

Fortunately, over a period of time, he reduced his expenses and found ways to live on a far lower income. I have no doubt this was a hard journey for him and his family. However, instead of spending every penny that came in each month, he found ways to economise. In other words, he became trustworthy in managing the little — his worldly wealth.

And so it was that an opportunity finally presented and he moved into full-time ministry. The move no longer required the massive pay-cut, as he had already reduced his expenses and changed jobs in the interim. By becoming trustworthy in managing the very little — his worldly wealth — he had positioned himself to grasp the opportunity to manage true Kingdom riches when it presented. Thus, he transitioned smoothly into his new role in full-time ministry. This is Luke 16:11 in action; if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

This leaves only one question to answer. How do we become trustworthy in managing the very little? To put it another way, what does trustworthy financial management look like in a Christian household? Fortunately, there are innumerable Bible verses that show us how to manage finances in our day-to-day living. Sadly, these are not widely taught in the modern church, but they are there if you choose to look for them.

You could start by trawling this blog to see what the Bible says on the subject. There are loads of articles that examine what the Bible teaches about wise financial conduct.

Alternatively, why not check out The Wise Man & the Fool. This short parable tells the story of two friends. One lives according to the word of the Lord and the wisdom of Solomon in the way he manages his money, and the other does not. It covers many of the same verses you will find in this blog albeit, all in a single succinct novella.

There is also a free companion book available on this website. You are welcome to download it on its own. That said, it is specifically written as a companion to The Wise Man & the Fool itself so will contain some references to the other book that may lack context if you have not read it.

Happy reading!

The Frightening Truth the Pension Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.

Proverbs 27:23-24

Many believers might argue that there is no need to pursue the acquisition of assets. After all, is that not what a pension is for? This is a valid argument; you can certainly think of your pension as that ‘flock’ or ‘herd’ that will sustain you when your strength fails.

I would still extend the challenge in Proverbs 27:23, however…

Do you know the condition of your flocks? How has that pension fared over the past five years? How has it fared over the past ten? Is it currently on track to cover your monthly expenses when it matures?

Do you give careful attention to your herds? How much are you paying your fund manager in fees each year? How much are your payments likely to increase as you approach retirement? Are there better alternatives out there that you could invest in? What type of pension are you invested in? Is it one that you can pass on to your children should you shuffle off this mortal coil before you are able to reap the benefits of said pension? Most of all, if you continue at the current rate of growth, will the pot be sufficient to support you and your family in your twilight years? Will it keep track with inflation?

The truth about retirement is that not all pension schemes have your interests at heart.

If you can’t answer these questions, then I submit you do not know the condition of your flocks and have not given careful attention to your herds. It may be time to heed God’s word on the matter and take this proverb’s instruction on board.

The video below reveals some frightening truths about the modern ‘retirement industry’. This is not specifically Christian content — but truth is still truth. If this video gives you pause for thought, then I would urge you to heed the above Bible verse and start paying attention to your ‘flocks and herds’, as the proverb advises.

The Truth About Retirement

The Bible on Money —That Sword Cuts Both Ways

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

I will be the first to acknowledge that the Bible message is not about money, wealth or the pursuit of riches. This raises the obvious question. If this is not what the Bible is about, then why devote an entire blog to the subject? After all, does the Bible not say, ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil?’

In answer to that question, I would submit…

First — even though it is not a core theme, the Bible still has something to say on the subject and…

Second — since most churches I ever attended have failed to address the subject at all, I feel it needs to be discussed somewhere.

With that said, we come to the next protest with regards to falling for the love of money. Whenever interpreting the Bible, we can’t take a single scripture out of context; we have to interpret each scripture in the light of all scripture. This is a common response in modern Christian culture when addressing a taboo subject like money.

For instance, if I choose to focus on the following verse:

Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

Ecclesiastes 11:2

… and suggest that this is some sound advice that the Bible offers about how we should invest our money…

Christendom’s ‘for love of money’ alarm-bells start to ring. The immediate response is, ‘You can’t take one scripture out of context and disregard all other scripture on the subject! For instance, you can’t ignore,’

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the Love of Money is… Only Half the Story

For the love of money is only half the story

My response? Consider those words carefully, dear brother or sister. That sword cuts both ways. And in this instance, that sword is the word of God. I am not suggesting that we should love money or pursue riches. However, the same Bible that contains 1 Timothy 6:10 also says,

Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.

Proverbs 21:20

In fact the very same passage in 1 Timothy contains the following verse;

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1 Timothy 5:8

And then there are verses like,

Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;  for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.

Proverbs 27:23-24

… or…

Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

Proverbs 12:11

And that is to name only a few verses that speak about how we should manage our money. There are plenty more I could quote. Please look here if you want to explore this further.

All I am saying is, ‘We can’t take one scripture, (E.g. 1 Timothy 6:10) out of context and disregard all other scripture on the subject.’

We need to look at God’s word as a whole to understand everything the Bible has to say on a given subject.

1 Timothy 6:10 is an important verse and it is one hundred percent true. But does that make any of the other verses above less important — or less true?

And here’s the rub. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard 1 Timothy 6:10 quoted or taught in church, from the pulpit, in home groups or in Christian media. There are countless sermons, books, DVD’s and even entire ministries devoted to the truth of this verse.

How many times have I heard any of the other verses above quoted or taught? In some forty years as an active Christian, who has seldom let a week go by when I was not in church or the company of fellow-believers…

… I might have heard 1 Timothy 5:8 quoted once, maybe twice in Christian conversation. And I have definitely heard Ecclesiastes 11:2 quoted on a handful of occasions, though never taught from the pulpit. As for the rest? As far as I can recall, I have never heard one of those verses taught by a pastor or elder in any church I have ever attended. Nor have I heard any of those verses discussed in a home-group or Bible study setting. In fact, I have never even heard those verses mentioned around a dinner table with fellow-believers; I had to seek them out and find them for myself.

This is a pity because, to quote the apostle Paul again,

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

So, here I take my stand — and choose to quote and discuss the verses that others have chosen to avoid.

Noble Poverty in the Bible — Exposing the Lie

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

Proverbs 28:6

Proverbs 28:6 is one of those scriptures so easily turned on its head.

Spoiler alert! This verse does not say it is better to be poor than rich; it says better to be blameless than perverse.

Yet, somehow, we always tend to focus on the wrong aspects of verses like this. I guess this is because we are physical beings in a physical world. As such, our immediate focus is on what we see every day; the poor vs the rich.

So, when we read a verse like this, we immediately latch on to the obvious — and we zone in on the words, ‘Better the poor…’

And why wouldn’t we? Our Christian culture loves to focus on the virtues of poverty over the evil of riches. But this is a cardinal error on our part with respect to this verse — because Proverbs 28:6 is not concerned with issues of poverty vs wealth. It is primarily concerned with issues of sin vs righteousness.

Jesus did not come into this world to save us from poverty. Nor did he come into this world to save us from wealth, for that matter. He came to this world to take away our sin and to make us righteous before God.

Better the Poor — Exposing the Lie

Better the poor - exposing the lie

So, if we read the verse again — carefully this time — it does not say, ‘Better the poor… than the rich.’

Rather, it says, ‘Better [to be] blameless… than [to be] perverse.’

The verse simply uses poverty vs riches as a measure against which to show us exactly how important this is. In fact the writer assumes that everyone agrees we would rather NOT be poor. It assumes that everyone would want to have a little more money in their pockets.

Then it teaches the lesson; those whose walk is blameless are far better off than those who are perverse. Even if they were steeped in poverty — something we all agree is a terrible fate — they are still better off than they would be if they were perverse.

To be perverse, according to the dictionary definition, is to deliberately deviate from what is good. At its core, this scripture addresses a condition of the human heart. Blamelessness versus perverseness. So how do we become blameless? Well, that is what the Bible is really all about. Jesus died on the cross and, in so doing, took all our sin — our perverseness, if you like — on himself. And in that same moment, he imparted his righteousness, or blamelessness, to all who would accept his free gift of grace.

Relative wealth or poverty pales into insignificance next to this eternal gift of righteousness — which is precisely the point that the writer of Proverbs 28:6 is trying to make.

The Truth About Jehovah Jireh — Secret Revealed

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

When I began looking into what the Bible says about money, I found innumerable articles that that used scripture out of context or stretched a verse’s meaning to teach a ‘Biblical’ lesson about how Christians should manage their finances.

While these teachings were well meant and, in many cases, offered sound financial advice, I needed something more. I was not looking for verses that could be applied to a financial context, provided we squint hard enough and tilt our heads at the right angle. I wanted to find scriptures that spoke about money unequivocally. Nothing less would do.

And, so, I was forced to disregard the many articles I read about Jehovah Jireh.

Why? There is actually only one Jehovah Jireh Bible verse to be found in God’s word — and it has absolutely nothing to do with physical or financial provision.

Jehovah Jireh Bible Verse

Jehovah Jireh Bible verse

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Genesis 22:13-14

The verses above are the culmination of the passage in which Abraham is called to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In the preceding verses, Isaac notes the fact that they don’t have a lamb for the sacrifice, to which Abraham replies that God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.

In this story, Abraham goes through the entire process of placing his son on the altar and is on the verge of sacrificing his own son — when God stops him at the last second. As we see in verse thirteen above, it is then that Abraham spots the ram caught by its horns; so God provided the sacrifice, after all.

This whole passage is a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice in which God would provide the lamb for the offering. Jesus is the Lamb of God, the sacrifice provided by — Jehovah Jireh — for the forgiveness of our sins.

Isn’t that a far greater gift than mere financial or physical provision? This is the crux of our Christian walk, and physical provision pales into insignificance next to the power of this verse.

So, in conclusion, there are many Bible verses that speak about money and how we should manage it… but Genesis 22:14 — the Jehovah Jireh Bible verse — is not one of them. And I, for one, think that the promise in this scripture is all the richer for this truth.

Everything My Pastors NEVER Taught Me About Money!

Posted on by richabbaholyabba
what the bible says about money

I grew up in a single-parent home. My mother worked hard to support me and my sister while we were young but money was always tight and we faced constant financial struggle in my formative years.

After completing school, I was a little rudderless. I never went on to tertiary education. Instead, I started a Christian outreach band and built a small music ministry. This was a great calling but it earned nothing so I started working in sales on a commission-only basis in order to pay the monthly bills. I was a terrible sales-person and, as a result, my income was low and quite sporadic. While my friends all went to university and then started working in high-paying jobs, I continued living from one intermittent paycheck to the next.

I had always believed that the love of money is the root of all evil, just as the Bible and my pastors taught me. I still do. However, there came a time when I realized that I simply had to earn more in order to make rent and put food on the table. I didn’t want to be rich — but I also knew that God did not want me to starve.

It was around this time that I moved to a new church that introduced me to the ‘Prosperity Gospel’. This teaching offered a perspective on money that I had never heard in church previously. Before I go any further, let me state for the record that I DO NOT buy into this teaching. I believe it is contrary to scripture, that it is a false teaching and, ultimately a dangerous one.

However, for a time in my twenties, I attended this church and bought into the idea that God wants every believer, including me, to be rich. The only requirements were a little faith on my part along with a lot of generous giving into the offering each week. This, according to my pastoral team, would obligate God to open the floodgates and pour out a financial blessing so great that my bank account would not be able to contain it.

Needless to say, that promise never came to pass. The only good that came out of the experience is that I learned the value of giving generously to God’s kingdom — something my previous churches had also kept fairly low-key.

In that dark place, I told God that I no longer believed he cared about my financial state…that I no longer needed or wanted his help…from that moment on, I would take care of my finances myself

I cried out to God in frustration

In my late twenties, I found myself earning a paltry $200 (yes — two hundred dollars) a month on average. And many months, I failed to earn even that much. Taking inflation into account, I was earning the equivalent of about $680/month, or just under $4.00/hour. This is less than half of minimum wage in over thirty states, according to these statistics, at time of writing. In short, I was locked in a cycle of eternal financial struggle.

I never lost my faith in God but I reached a point where I cried out to him in frustration. In that dark place, I told God that I no longer believed he cared about my financial state. I told him that I no longer needed or wanted his help or intervention with respect to my finances. And I told him that from that moment on, I would take care of my finances myself and that he would have no part that that aspect of my life going forward.

Fortunately, this dark period of my Christian walk only lasted a few months before I recognized my own foolishness and repented. I realized that my expectations were based on deliberately misunderstood and misinterpreted scriptures about prosperity, taught to me by a misguided pastoral team. I am sure that many of these men of God were and are sincere believers — but, with respect to their teachings on financial prosperity, they were sincerely wrong.

I put the prosperity teaching behind me and turned my face towards God and his word. Still, little changed with respect to my financial worries. God did not deliver me from the deep financial struggle in which I found myself. I started a business which did extremely well in its first year, and then tanked in the second. As I approached my thirties, and looking to get married, I found myself effectively unemployed with nothing to show for my life but a failed business.

I opted for a career change and started working in IT. With no tertiary qualification and zero experience, my starting salary was equivalent to that of someone fresh out of school, and barely above minimum wage. However, for me it was a step up. At least it was a regular income.

I got married in my early thirties. My wife and I built a life together and raised a family. Two children, one emigration and countless career changes later, our financial situation had changed in many respects. Our income was higher and more regular, that much is certain. And yet, our financial struggle remained. We still found ourselves living from paycheck to paycheck every month. As our income grew, so did our expenses, so much so that we were hardly able to keep up.

I now found myself facing a daily commute, two hours each way. I left for work at 06h00 every morning and returned home at 18h30-19h00 each evening. I spent the time in between chained to a desk for five days a week — all in an effort to simply make ends meet. My wife was in the same position as we needed two incomes just to cover our monthly expenses.

Wealthy? You’re joking! We were barely scraping by.

In this new normal, I barely ever saw my children. I was either working or commuting to and from work for roughly sixty-five hours each week. The demands of my job also left little space for God in my life and my Christian walk suffered as a result. The problem was, I dared not stop for fear of falling back into a situation that left me unable to make rent or put food on the table. I wasn’t twenty any more and I had two children relying on me to provide for them.

And so, I continued in my eternal financial struggle. All the while I had this deep-seated feeling that something was terribly wrong. This was not the life to which God had called me. Sure, I was able to put food on the table, but at what cost? My health? My family? My faith?

What the Bible Says About Money

what the Bible says about money

I decided once and for all to understand what the Bible says about money…what it actually says… and, by extension…everything it says

What the Bible says about money

As I approached my fifties, I decided once and for all to understand what the Bible says about money. Not what popular Christian culture claims it says. Not what I think it says — nor what my pastors tell me it says. I wanted to understand what it actually says. And, by extension, I wanted to understand everything it says on the subject.

So began my journey into God’s word to understand… what the Bible says about money.

The first point to note is this; nothing I read negated what I had always been taught with respect to the love of money.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:10

This is what the Bible says about money. It is very clear on this — so don’t let anybody tell you anything different.

However, as I studied 1 Timothy 6:10, a frightening truth began to emerge; I was a lover of money! In fact, I had always loved money.

What the Bible says about money in 1 Timothy 6:10, made it clear that the love of money is a state of heart; not a bank balance. As a lifelong believer, I had heard this verse taught countless times from the pulpit. But the way it was taught and, as I had always understood it, the verse simply did not apply to me. After all, I had never chased after riches. Quite the contrary; I had faced financial struggle my whole life.

But, as I read God’s word, this chilling thought consumed me; you don’t have to be rich to love money. In fact, you don’t even have to want to be rich to love money. As I studied what the Bible says about money, I came to realize that the love of money has led far more people into consumer-debt and relative poverty than it has ever led to wealth. And my life was a glaring example of this terrifying Biblical truth.

I began to understand that my desperate need for job security was little more than a fear of loss — loss of the little that I had managed to acquire. I also began to grasp how an ingrained cultural focus on consumer spending always left me coming up short. This, in turn, left me working and commuting sixty hours or more each week, forever chasing that next paycheck to cover mounting bills and keep food in the table. This is the love of money at its stealthiest. I never planned for this life. Not once did I picture this as living the dream back in my teens and twenties.

As I studied God’s word, I began to understand something my pastors had never taught me; how the love of money would keep me steeped in poverty and financial struggle for the rest of my life — if I let it. My pastors had always called out the danger of chasing after riches, and how to avoid it but not once had a pastor ever explained to me how my innate love of money could keep me forever chained in a life of financial struggle.

This was the first Biblical truth my pastor never taught me about money. There were many more to come as I embarked on this frightening and exhilarating journey into God’s word.

As I delved into God’s word to learn what the Bible says about money, I discovered a treasure trove of verses that offer immense wisdom on the subject. Here are a few to get you started.

Terrifying Truth — Busyness is the New Laziness

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

Proverbs 24:30-34

I noticed this trend in my life a week or two back.

After a period of roughly four years spent diligently following the sound business advice offered in books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, I dropped the ball.

It happened so quickly.

I was pursuing two new investment opportunities that were proving difficult to negotiate. Both appeared to have gotten stuck in the doldrums and they were simply not progressing. At the same time, day-to-day work responsibilities began to demand more and more of my energy and attention.

Before I even realized it, I had taken my attention off of my investment portfolio completely and focused all of my energy on work demands.

Then I was reminded of the passage in Proverbs 24:30-34. In this proverb, Solomon, the wise king of Israel observes something interesting. While walking past a vineyard and/or field, he notices that the ground is filled with thorns and weeds. Apart from that, the field’s stone wall is in ruins.

Solomon concludes that the field’s owner is lazy — a sluggard — or, at the very least, is a person who has no sense.

It became apparent to me that, as I focused all of my energy and attention on day-to-day work, I had stopped taking care of my property portfolio; my vineyard, so to speak. I was too tired and it was too hard. I was too busy with other things and work had become too demanding.

In short, I was too busy to give my ‘vineyard’ the attention it deserved. As a result, my new acquisitions were in the doldrums. Agents were billing me for superfluous services. Maintenance jobs were not being properly managed and my pipeline of new purchases was drying up.

The Field of a Sluggard

field of a sluggard

What would Solomon have to say about me if he saw the state of my investment portfolio at that point in time? He could reach only one conclusion; that it is the field of a sluggard, a vineyard of someone who has no sense.

The writer of this proverb would have concluded that I was lazy — and yet, I was busier than I had been in a long time. I had no excuse. Being busy in one area of my life did not give me a free pass to be lazy in another.

There was only one thing for it. I adjusted my mindset and refocused on my vineyard.

Why Do Christians Wear Themselves Out to get Rich?

Posted on by richabbaholyabba

Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Proverbs 23:4‭-‬5

It is easy to read a passage like Proverbs 23:4-5 and think, ‘This does not apply to me.’

Sadly, this is exactly why Christians wear themselves out to get rich — inadvertently and on a daily basis.

It all starts with one’s personal definition of the word rich. If we don’t consider ourselves to be rich, then we simply blow past this passage and move on. And there’s the rub. Very few people in this world consider themselves to be rich. In fact, almost everyone considers rich to be orders of magnitude — richer — than they are.

In other words, anyone earning minimum wage would consider those who earn the median USA salary of $4,600/month, at time of writing, rich. Of course, people who earn the USA median don’t consider themselves to be rich; they consider millionaires to be rich.

So, it should come as no surprise to learn that a survey showed that the vast majority of millionaires don’t consider themselves to be rich either.

How can this be? The simple truth is that people in all these various walks of life simply don’t have quite enough money. They have debts and living expenses that consume all of their current income. They all need just a little bit more…

… so, as a result, they don’t feel rich.

It’s easy to point the finger at those who are far wealthier than we are and ask, ‘How much more money could they possibly need?’

But consider this; people in less fortunate circumstances than you or me are looking at us and asking the exact same question.

We say things like, ‘If I had as much money as that person, I would never need any more.’

The sad truth is, we would. It’s the human condition.

Ignoring the warning in this proverb is one reason why Christians wear themselves out to be rich. I’ve said it before; the love of money is a state of heart — not a bank balance. We don’t need to be rich to love money.

Why Christians Wear Themselves Out to get Rich

why Christians wear themselves out to get rich

The love of money is a state of heart – not a bank balance

Rich Abba, Holy Abba

The average hard-working person spends 75% or more of their waking hours in pursuit of a paycheck. Every time we receive that paycheck, we acquire — riches.

And, just like the proverb says…

We cast but a glance at those riches, and they are gone! They sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

So we head back to the office each Monday in pursuit of the next paycheck — and most hard-working folk will do this for the forty to fifty most productive years of their lives. This is how and why Christians wear themselves out to get rich.

Meanwhile, we neglect the Kingdom of God in our lives. This is a brutal truth for hard-working believers to face. Can it be that we seek second the Kingdom of God and his righteousness — after we seek that eternal paycheck?

The only way to break this cycle is to be intentional about seeking God’s kingdom first in our lives — and we can only achieve this by being equally intentional about how we earn and spend our money.