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The Bible tells us that money is both wonderful and deadly. It is one way God blesses people, and, perhaps more surprising, it can actually enhance our relationship with God. However, equating prosperity with godliness is a scriptural no-no.

You don't have to go very deep into Scripture to discover that God loves to lavishly provide for his creation. The Garden of Eden was a place of abundance, and it was said, "the gold of that land is good" (Gen. 2:11). And consider the description given at the end of the Bible of our eternal home: "The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass" (Rev. 21:21).

God wants us to trust him in every part of our lives, not just the spiritual parts.

Catherine Marshall writes:

"If we are to believe Jesus, his Father and our Father is the God of all life and his caring and provision include a sheepherder's lost lamb, a falling sparrow, a sick child, the hunger pangs of a crowd of four thousand, the need for wine at a wedding feast, and the plight of professional fishermen who toiled all night and caught nothing. These vignettes, scattered through the Gospels like little patches of gold dust, say to us, 'No creaturely need is outside the scope or range of prayer.'"

Back in the day when I first came to Jesus, every serious believer I knew talked only about surrender, sacrifice, and giving up our lives for the cause of Christ—the deeper life. We used to sit around and muse about how cool it would be to actually die for our faith. We never thought much about praying for God to provide for us. We thought faith was about surrendering control to Jesus Christ—if he provides, great; if not, we die smiling. We were a die-to-self, suffering kind of crowd. But there were problems.

Hard became a badge of spirituality for my buds and me. And we all walked around looking as though we were baptized in lemon juice. We were big on the deeper life, but things got so deep that it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

When Gail and I first heard that God wanted to answer specific prayers about material things, it was a bit of a stretch for us. It seemed so selfish and wrong. Worldly. But the promises were everywhere in the Bible. Verses like "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19). And though I tried to spiritualize this to mean "spiritual needs," the context is obviously financial. After some study it became clear to me: God cares about money and physical provision.

Our first "provision" miracle happened with a rental property. After Gail and I married in 1976, we lived in an apartment we mockingly called "the Palace." It had slanted walls, one space heater (we lived in frigid Wisconsin), and a toilet and tiny shower in the closet. We were paying $90 a month.

Some friends of ours in St. Louis told us how they got a home for $240 a month in a market where similar homes were going for close to $500. They said they looked at their budget and asked God for a home in that price range. Gail and I thought that if God did it for our friends, he would probably do it for us.

We examined our budget and decided that, though it would be a stretch, we could probably afford $125 a month. We prayed, "Lord, we wouldn't even ask about this if we hadn't run into Bible promises that say you care about these things. We ask you to give us a home for $125 a month. We trust you to do it." Then we watched the paper.

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