Author : Kevin Farrar
The amount of confusion about money, wealth, and possessions among Christians is immense. There tends to be a never-ending debate among God's people about exactly how much material wealth we should have. Amidst the uncertainty many adopt the mindset that a person's economic position is a revelation of their level of spirituality and relationship with God. For some reason we begin to ask ourselves how much money should a Christian have? Is there an answer to this million-dollar question?We may refer to a wealthy Christian as being abundantly blessed. We might look upon a person who has given up their worldly possessions to follow Christ as super spiritual. But couldn't we also turn those perceptions around? Relating wealth to greed and voluntary poverty to a person who is using God as an excuse to give up on life. Of course we could. The reality is that only God and the individual know the absolute truth.Thoughts like this can play out in our mind when we get caught up in the confusion that's created between two extreme beliefs. Many people have aspired to accumulate wealth while others appear to accept poverty as a normal way of life. So on one side there are those who believe that as children of the King we should live like kings. On the other side we find people preaching that poverty is the only road to righteousness.There is not much chance that suffering for Christ through voluntary poverty will ever become a popular way of life in our society but we have to acknowledge that God does direct some people to that lifestyle. The more widely embraced view is the prosperity belief.There is a vast amount of teaching from each extreme end of the spectrum. Instead of creating understanding it has caused confusion in the middle where the two extremes collide. Even as Christians we begin to feel that money is the measure of man. We attempt to guide ourselves toward some mark on a fiscal scale that we think God and everyone else will approve of. Being careful to avoid confrontation the attitude has formed among Christians that it is ok to have money but it's not a good idea to talk about it. Still many silently ponder the question how much money should a Christian have?Using select scriptures we can defend either side of the prosperity vs. poverty debate. We can also completely miss the message of God's Word. The Bible in its entirety answers the question. The answer is it doesn't matter. The presence or lack of wealth and possessions is not a prerequisite for serving Christ but our attitude about them is. Doesn't it make sense that God would need Christians at every level of the economic scale? So neither voluntary poverty nor the accumulation of enormous wealth are a component of a balanced Christian life.God is not as concerned as we are with the size of our bank account. He doesn't mind our enjoying material possessions or the opportunities that wealth affords. But He does repeatedly warn that we cannot allow wealth and possessions to become the object of our love and the priority of our life.A proper attitude about money is that no matter what our economic position is we are content, we have peace, we experience joy in life and whether we experience financial increase or decrease our emotions remain neutral and our focus remains on God.We are less useful to God when our attitudes are controlled by the level of our material life. The more our emotions go up and down with flow of money the more we need to work to align the attitude of our heart with God's Word.Kevin Farrar is the author of the Wisdom For Your Wallet personal financial program. Go to http://www.wisdomforyourwallet.com to learn more about this life changing program.
Keyword : money,possessions,financial,truth,steward,personal,finance,prosperity,poverty,wealth
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