God Says Gold is Good

Think about the first time you formed a belief about large amounts of money. Was it a movie where the wealthy businessman was the villain? A song? A family member who told you that talking about money was impolite? A church message that made you feel that wanting more was somehow spiritually dangerous?

These early exposures shape a framework that most people carry into adulthood without realizing it. The framework says that half of us will join the team that money corrupts, money is for the lucky, money makes people selfish, and/or money is a major source of conflict; whereas the other half will say that they’re wrong. To which the first half will reply, “why would I believe you?” And then, operating from that framework, people unconsciously make decisions that keep their relationship with money right where it is and not growing.

The problem with this framework is that it isn’t rooted in Scripture. Observation, emotion, and fear are the tag team of the last 3 millenniums for making poor financial decisions – we call it ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ today – because we only observe the things that money can physically buy and be presented in front of us. You’ve never thought to purchase the wind because you can’t and you can’t see it; but it’s very easy to see the latest pair of golf clubs and how by doing nothing to your swing, you’ll automatically hit 20% further.

Well, as we dive into Scripture, we learn that teachings pertaining to money, wealth, and possessions are mentioned more than 2,000 times throughout the Bible. Solomon, who was the richest man to ever live, tells us:

“He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This is also vanity.” — Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NKJV)

And someone may read this and say, “so having lots of money isn’t a good thing according to God since this is where Solomon gained his wisdom from”. But Solomon also says:

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.” — Proverbs 13:22 (NKJV)

Which means that a quality of being a good parent for our children when it’s all said and done, is that we leave not only our children, but our children’s children an inheritance that allows them to continue to do the work we’ve been called to do and that’s to be the light on the earth.

And don’t be frightened by this. The world occasionally tries to remix this verse because our flesh doesn’t want the responsibility of missing the ball on this, but the reason we know this specifically means a monetary inheritance is because the wealth of the sinner is mentioned right after, within the same verse. Why we don’t need to be afraid of this is because all things are God’s and He is abundantly able to do all; and as we adjust our lives to put Him first in everything, He promises us that when we seek Him, we shall be blessed, shall not want, and shall not lack any good thing; and His word will not return to Him void.

Meaning, because we have an expectation to leave money behind and teach our children’s children the importance of stewardship so they may have sound guard over their financial portion so that they may allow the blessings of God to flow through them for others someday, that when He says we need to leave an inheritance behind, that He will make a way for that to happen. We may not realize it in the moment, but all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and were called according to His purpose.

So money is good.

Get that in your head and never let anyone tell you otherwise. Money is a tool, and you don’t say to a tool that it’s bad because of the tool, but rather the hands the tool is in.

“And the gold of that land is good.” — Genesis 2:12 (NKJV)

God placed gold in the Garden of Eden and called it good. This was before the fall, before sin, and before corruption of any kind, and they didn’t even need to buy anything at this time. So having nice things, looking nice, and wanting the best for yourself and your family are not wrong – they’re expected with God because we do not serve an abundant God who wants us to live in lack. God never once tells us that we should picture Him in poverty and as anything less than the Creator of all. We serve an abundant God who tells us to:

“Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” — Psalm 37:4 (NKJV)

Delighting in Him means to do what is good to please Him which we can rewrite to say, “Believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and keep His commandments, for whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him, and by this we know that we are in Him, and should be in Him, He shall give us the desires of our heart because the desires of our heart are His desires for us.

So because He desires that we leave an inheritance for our Children’s Children, then when we work hard and align our lives in Him and trust and believe in His almighty and always perfect nature, then anything He asks of us we can ask for help from Him because He is our provider and protector. And it’s because we place our security in the Lord and not in a tool that we can understand,

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” — 1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV)

Not money itself is the root of all kinds of evil. It’s the love of it.

So the tool itself is not dangerous. It’s like a hammer in the hands of a skilled tradesman. The hammer can either drive the nail into the wood, or they can miss the nail and hit their hand. Money in the hands of a Godly Steward is accurate and doesn’t miss the nail. A Godly Steward who understands what to do with money is one of the most powerful forces for good on the earth.

So do you want to be a Godly Steward?

Then make today the day you change everything, because tomorrow isn’t promised. And if you are reading this, and haven’t given your life to Jesus Christ and received Him as your Lord and Savior, call me at 520.371.9437, and we will recite a prayer together.

As always, I love and appreciate you, and may God bless you and yours.

Til next week.

EJM