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).
Adventures of wonder are only possible when we possess money without being possessed by money. Being possessed by money turns this subject dark.
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.'”
The Bright Side of Money
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.
We had already been perusing the paper for about a month, but there were no rental homes for less than $300. But three days after we prayed, an ad appeared for a two-bedroom home—for $125 a month. We went to see it, did a Jericho march around it (if you don’t know what that is, that’s probably a good thing), and thanked God that it was ours.
When we called, an elderly woman told us, “I’m probably asking too little for the house. I’ve had so many calls about it.”
When we went to meet with her, a professor from the local junior college called and offered her more money for the property. Gail and I just bowed our heads and said, “We thank you, Father, for our $125 house.” We knew it might not be this one, but we suspected that it would.
“Thank you for the offer,” she said on the phone, “but I want to give it to this nice young couple.”
It’s hard to describe the potpourri of feelings we had. We were elated. It humbled us. We felt loved and cared for. We felt undone, broken by the fact that almighty God cared about something so domestic, so common. This wasn’t a missionary house or a home for wayward teens—it was where Ed and Gail Gungor would live. And God moved to make it so. We knew this answered prayer wasn’t proof of our spirituality; it was a simple God-story. And we felt kissed—it was our first “provision kiss” from God.
When you see God provide for you, it impacts you spiritually. The Bible says one spiritual result of God’s supernatural provision is joy (Deut. 16:15). But there is more. You feel his love and embrace. It breeds hope for the future. God’s provision fosters wonder and awe—this is the wonderful side of money. Jesus said if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him (Matt 7:11)! It is just too sweet to discover he really is our Father.
Jesus said our hearts could be kept clean if we deal rightly with money (Matt 6:21). But these adventures of wonder are only possible when we possess money without being possessed by money. It is being possessed by money that turns this subject dark.
The Dark Side
Money can be deadly. And the warnings given in the Bible are severe. Jesus said, “Woe to you who are rich” (Luke 6:24). He warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). In at least one case, Jesus went so far as to command, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”
Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to poor people (Matt. 5:3). Some individuals in Scripture “joyfully accepted the confiscation” of their property, because they were godly (Heb. 10:34). In other words, they were poor—poor and godly. Others, called heroes of faith, were “destitute” and “mistreated” (Heb. 11:37). And the Bible says these folks were so holy that “the world was not worthy of them” (v. 38). Wealth is not a symbol of spirituality.
What do you do with texts like these?
First, we simply listen. No rationale. No explanations. Just listen. Something begins to emerge when we get still and let these texts speak for themselves. It’s a little terrifying to listen, but we all need a good scare now and again: money can be a threat to our faith.
There is something about money that competes for our devotion. People serve money the way they serve God. Why? Because money transfers to its owner certain godlike features. For example, God is omnipotent (all-powerful), but those who possess lots of cash feel omnipotent, as though they can do anything they want. God is omnipresent, but wealth also carries a hint of omnipresence, because the wealthy believe they can go anywhere, anytime. God alone is omniscient (all-knowing), but the rich come to believe they can find out whatever they want.
We cannot be casual about this. The first commandment of the Decalogue is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). And money is a rival god. Paul warned that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” and that “some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:10).
Most preachers who overemphasize prosperity are completely silent about money’s dark side. It’s as if they believe money is only good, and the more we get, the better. But Jesus never bought into the idea that affluence was a sign of spirituality. In fact, he tended to espouse quite the opposite. He said it would be “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24). Paul warned about corrupt church leaders who asserted that “godliness is a means to financial gain” (1 Tim. 6:5). No spiritual warm fuzzies there.
The Grace of Giving
The secret to experiencing the wonderful side of money, where you enjoy the provision of a loving Father, while staying free from money’s dark, idolatrous pull, is the act of giving.
Giving touches a nerve in us that nothing else does. We look a lot like God when we do it: “For God so loved the world that he gave. . .” (John 3:16). When you give, you defy the fear that you won’t have enough. You insult greed, the impulse to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves.
If you really believe God owns it all and that he is your source and provider, giving will be a simple matter. Contrariwise, if you believe that what you have is yours and you’re unsure whether God had anything to do with getting it to you, you will hold on to your money for dear life. The arena of giving is the only place where exactly what’s going on in your heart is revealed.
According to Jesus, giving keeps your heart in motion toward God and away from material things. That’s what he was talking about when he said in the context of giving, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Your heart will follow the direction of your giving. If we throw money at (give to) things that bring glory to God, our hearts will be running toward God.
There is nothing wrong with praying for increase and for success—unless there are hidden reefs of discontentment, greed, idolatry, and lust in your heart. James warned, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3). The actual practice of giving will keep your heart clean and position you to trust God for material increase.
Paul calls giving a grace (2 Cor. 8:7). It’s a grace because it is based on love. The giving gesture was modeled by Jesus when “though he was rich … for your sakes he became poor” and His motive was so others would “become rich” (v. 9). This should be the true motive behind giving: love for others. Not give-so-you-can-get. That’s just a cover up for greed.
But giving doesn’t mean not enjoying what we have been given. For centuries many saints have believed that poverty was a sign of spirituality. But that is as much an error as believing prosperity is a sign of spirituality.
Remember, for every mile on the road of truth, there are two miles of ditches.
Ed Gungor is pastor of Peoples Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Reprinted by permission from Religiously Transmitted Diseases by Ed Gungor, copyright 2006 Thomas Nelson Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information onLeadership Journal.
