Biblical Wisdom for Money in Marriageনমুনা

Does your faith affect your finances? Maybe you never put the words “money” and “faith” together. We tend to think of money as “of the world,” and keep it separate from God and our relationship with Him. What happens when we put them together? I think that is the first step towards viewing money as God wants us to view it. Psalm 50 paints a picture of God as the owner of everything on earth. If everything is God’s, so is money. So is our money. That’s where things get tough. We want to keep our money out of our relationship with God. After all, if I earned it, I should be able to do what I want with it, right? That seems to be the prevailing thought pattern concerning money. There are two problems with that. First, it does not agree with what the Bible says about money. Second, most of us do a pretty poor job of managing money. What if we looked at money through God’s eyes? What if we said it is all His? He is the owner and we are the managers. That means that we let God influence how we manage our money. We can use money as a tool to grow God’s Kingdom, then make money decisions with that focus. Tithing is one way to do that. It’s a tangible way to live out our faith by agreeing that God can do more with the 90% we have after tithing than we could ever do on 100% without Him. It’s a principle I’ve seen in my own life, and in countless couples. The decision to tithe to our local church furthers the mission of His Kingdom and it helps to reorient our view of money from “owner” to “steward.” We see God show up as He transforms our hearts, grows our faith, furthers His mission, and provides for us. I doubt you’d ever claim to be wiser than God, but we live like that’s what we believe when we do not “seek first His kingdom” (Matthew 6:33) in the way we handle our finances. Does that mean you cannot have a nice house or a nice car? No. What it does mean is that the house or the car can never be more important to us than God. When they are, it’s a sign we have the whole “God is the owner, I’m the steward” belief turned upside down. Nancy and I have handled money both ways. Doing it our way has never worked for us. Doing it God’s way works all the time. Today’s Challenge: Discuss together what it would mean for each of you and your marriage to take up the “God is the owner and you are the managers” plan for your money. Going Deeper: Pray for God’s wisdom with money. Ask Him how you can best serve Him and others as the managers of His money.