How does our view of God and His promise of provision impact our finances?
Financial expert and host of MoneyWise Howard Dayton believes when we take God out of our finances, we operate under faulty notions about our economy.
“One of the main wrong notions is the presumption that tomorrow is going to be just fine. ‘I’ll have my job, my investments will stay strong, etc.’ From the government standpoint, ‘we won’t have any real financial emergencies so we’ll be able to service this debt.'”
He points us towards an important truth found in James 4:14,
“James is a classic on warning us not to presume upon tomorrow, ‘we don’t know what tomorrow will be like,’ as James said. When we take on debt, we’re presuming that we’ll have the resources to make those payments and it’s as we found out in 08’ and 09’, that’s not always true.”
We have an opportunity to manage our resources in the right direction by partnering with God. Howard shares two helpful principles from Scripture.
“In 1 Corinthians 4:2, ‘it is required as stewards…that one be found faithful.’ We are to be faithful to handle it the way the Bible reveals that we should handle it; the smartest way to handle it and the most generous way to handle our resources.”
We are not alone in managing our resources on earth – God plays an important role.
“He is the owner of everything, Psalm 24:1, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.’ He is our provider.”
He has promised to provide our every need, but we need to do our part by properly managing the resources He has entrusted to us.
“Once we’ve been faithful to do our part, then we can be content, we can be at peace, we can trust that God will do His part.”
