Money

I thought God did not want me, let alone want to provide for me. Perhaps more than any fear, the fear of lack of money has controlled me.  I have thought it was up to me to provide for me. I have struggled giving things away to people who needed them. 

If you love someone more than yourself, you want to provide for them more than you want to provide for yourself. You love them, (not what you provide them), more than yourself.  

One of the reasons I have struggled in life is because I have at times wanted money more than God and in turn others of you. 

Do we provide for ourselves or does God? If God provides for us but we don't understand that He provides for us we can spend a large portion of our lives trying to provide what has already been provided. This can cause significant problems in society (debt).  

   If you are wanting things ( including money) more than you are wanting God, you are hurting yourself and/ or others.  I believe one of the ways to help you financially is to help you know the truth about God. If you know there is nothing in God's heart He wants more than you, I believe you will be a lot more able to want nothing more than God in your heart. This will enable you to trust God more financially, freeing you up to live. 

Psalm 62:10 Do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Psalm 119:127 Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold,

Proverbs 11:4 Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

Proverbs 23:4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness.

Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Luke 16:10 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.

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.

Mark 6:8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.

 1 Timothy 6:10 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 6:5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

Mark 10:17-21  As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’

20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31  What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.