This question was once asked, “If the Lord took your church contribution and multiplied it by ten and made that your weekly income, how much would you get?” So, am I merely giving God, the giver of every good and every perfect gift, a meager tip?
Ron Isam
Lead Pastor at Anchor of Grace
It is vital that we realize that any money that comes into our possession (a gift, a salary) completely belongs to the Lord. He is our Provider so therefore we are responsible to make sure prayer and hearing God is vital in any use of any money that comes into our home.
We must create a budget and work that budget.
It is vital to a marriage that both husband and wife must be involved, have a good sense of the budget, and stick to it. But don’t forget about money management for kids. Dave Ramsey, says that every dollar has an address in the budget. It can be billed (as boring).
But it is a fact of life. What that means is that you have a category for every dollar. You will have different items like eating out, groceries, fuel, clothes savings, and blow money.
Christian Money Management Principles
Everything must have a place. When an unexpected amount of money shows up. It can happen a lot if God is at the center of your life and finances.
If something comes in, rather than saying oh boy, let’s go out to eat a movie, etc and spend it all up. It’s best that your have certain percentages go to certain things in the budget, and a percentage of it can be to go out and do something, but it’s vital you stay within that budgeted percentage that you had set apart to go splurge a little bit.
For me, the most important part of the scripture that must be understood is found in 1 Corinthians 8 & 9. The Bible says that God gives seed to the sower. What that means is if we are active generous givers (sowers) if something happens, God can then bless us by giving us more seeds to sow.
Money Management in the Church
On May 20, 2013, we lost our church facility and our home to an EF5 Tornado. They were about 3 hours apart. It was crazy because people began to send money to both of us personally to rebuild the church facility.
“I couldn’t div out why there was so much money, as well as many things like tools, supplies, bottled water, and on and on” – Ron Isam.
We did not have anything to give to help others in need. We had some money in the bank, and after a bit of time, people started giving us a lot of things to give away:
He gives seed to the sower.
We got financial success and were able to rebuild the church facility for what the insurance company sent mixed with the very generous gifts and both projects we built back with absolutely no debt.
Now, the church facility had been debt-free before the tornado. The home we just owed a few thousand dollars. We paid that loan off and built a much nicer and bigger home, and the church facility kind of looked the same on the outside but we were able to build in all the bells and whistles with sound, lighting, signage, and everything else.
Still built it back debt-free. God just poured money and resources into both projects. One business in Utah sent enough money to build everything from the top plates up.
I think came up to about $30,000. Maybe a bit more.
People gave gift cards for furniture for the church, for our home. God will give seed to the sower. However, we must be sowing all along in our life. My wife and I have always tithed and given above & beyond.
Read Also: How to Reach Your 2024 Financial Goals with Budgeting Spreadsheet
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
Our church gave a great amount of money to help the needy, missionaries, and ministries. I believe because of being generous both personally and as a ministry.
God, just seemed to have fun finding ways to bless us. We were both honored and deeply humbled, knowing that God knows who we are. He knows our name and yours as well.
He knows everything about it.
Since the tornado, a year after we opened the new facility. I had to take early medical retirement because I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I was not ready to have to make that kind of decision at that time because I have been a pastor for 44 years now. I retired in 2015. God has continued to bless us. I receive Disability.
I do a lot of Counselling and I can make enough to help us make it financially. I can only make a certain amount above the disability, and I usually always have a lot of clients and God continues to bless us.
Simply Put: learn how to give as these two chapters encourage us to give, and He will bless you over and over.
It’s not the amount that is important, it’s the heart in which we give.
God loves a cheerful giver. Try Him out on this, I assure you, it works.
Dick Christen, D.D.
1st-Degree Connection Pastor/Teacher
A miserly church member who planned to give everything to charity when he died, was told this pig and cow story by his pastor:
The pig was lamenting about his unpopularity to the cow. “People talk about your gentleness and kind eyes. True, you give milk and cream, but I give more. I give bacon and ham, and they even pickle my feet. Still, nobody likes me. I am just a pig. Why is this?” Replied the cow,
“Maybe it’s because I give while I am still living.”
What Does the Bible Say About Money Management
The principle of generosity is often seen in Scripture:
“There is one who scatters and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered”
(Proverbs 11:24-25)
Aligning my life with this principle challenges my faith to the core. Does God really mean this? If so, the possibilities stare me in the face. “Give and it shall be given to you….” A miser hoards and takes and takes and takes. A geyser gives and gives and gives.
Bible Verses About Money
In teaching us how to handle our money, my mother said, again and again, IT’S FUN TO BE FRUGAL. And, most of the time I’d agree obligingly. Really, she was right and consistently lived it out.
But, we can profitably ask (no pun intended), when may thrift become miserliness? A penny pincher may simply just not be trusting the Lord and instead hoards money making it his or her god.
You can block out the sun if you hold a penny close enough to your eye. But God challenges us oppositely.
Ponder this:
“There is one who scatters and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered”
(Proverbs 11:24-25)
Is it not true:
We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give?
Andrew Murray remarked, “We ask how much a man gives; Christ asks how much he keeps. Remember the widow and her two mites (little pennies)”?
Sources Used in Research for the Article:
- Christian Money Management, PAUL E. CANTRELL 2004
http://camphillchurch.org/study_books/MONEY%20Management,%20Successful.pdf - Financial Literacy and Education Commission,
https://www.mymoney.gov/ - SEC Charges The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Its Investment Management Company for Disclosure Failures and Misstated Filings,
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-35