If you're facing some financial challenges, I want you to know something today. God never intended for you to worry about your finances. He never meant for you to spend your days scrambling around looking desperately for money to meet your needs. God wants you to live in such a way that money comes looking for you.
That may sound strange but I assure you, it is thoroughly scriptural. Proverbs 13:22 says, "A good man leaves an inheritance [of moral stability and goodness] to his children's children; and the wealth of the sinner [finds its way eventually] into the hands of the righteous for whom it was laid up" (Amplified Bible). According to the Bible, wealth is out there looking for somebody who is righteous. And if you'll start living God's way, it will eventually find you!
Exactly what is God's way of living? What can we do to make sure we qualify as one of those righteous people money has been laid up for? Psalm 122 helps us answer those questions. It says:
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good. (verses 6-9 KJV)
Who Do You Love?
Notice that passage doesn't say, "They that love prosperity shall prosper." Some folks seem to think it says that. They start hearing about the principles of prosperity and they forget God and start going after riches. They start seeking the creation rather than the Creator. Don't make that mistake, because it will keep you in poverty for sure.
What the verse actually says is, "They shall prosper that love thee." Who is it we're supposed to love? Jerusalem which in New Testament terms represents the kingdom of God!
Money doesn't come looking for people who have a love affair with prosperity. It comes looking for people who have a love affair with the Lord.
It comes to people who are committed above all not to their own, personal prosperity but to the prosperity of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It looks for people who are seeking to be a blessing to their brethren and companions. It looks for people who are praying, seeking God, and believing not for increase in their own house but for increase that will bring good to the house of God!
Rearrange Your Priorities
Most Christians don't understand that so they put themselves first. They focus on getting their own needs met and think that once they've taken care of themselves, they can give to the work of God. But they've got things backward!
According to Jesus, God wants to feed and clothe us with His best and He'll do it if we'll just rearrange our priorities. If we'll get our attention off ourselves and center it upon God instead (if we'll stop putting ourselves first and put His kingdom first), He'll take better care of us than we could ever take care of ourselves. That's why Jesus said:
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:31-33 KJV)
Most of us know those verses and mentally agree with them. Yet we still have needs in our lives. Why is that?
It must be for one of two reasons. Either we aren't believing and exercising our faith in the Scripture, or we don't know how to seek first the kingdom.
What's the Purpose?
To seek God first, we must become absolutely addicted to seeing His kingdom increase and make progress like never before. We have to get ourselves out of the picture and start believing for the means to advance the Gospel.
We also have to check our motives and ask ourselves why we want to prosper. What's the purpose? If we're seeking first the kingdom of God, we'll want to prosper for the same reasons God wants us to prosper: to be a blessing, to give to the poor, and to establish and spread the kingdom of God.
You can see why it's so important to understand the purpose of prosperity by looking at what happened to the Israelites in the book of Exodus. When God delivered them out of slavery in the land of Egypt, He prospered them beyond their wildest dreams. What's more, He did it in a very supernatural way.
He told Israelite women to go to their Egyptian neighbors and ask for jewels, gold, and raiment (Exodus 3:22). Then He gave them such favor that the Egyptians actually gave it to them! God moved so mightily in that situation that three and a half million Israelites who had been in slavery for 400 years not only walked out of Egypt free, they walked out wealthy!
Makes You Want to Slap a Cow
That's a wonderful and exciting story, but it can also be a little puzzling. After all, the Israelites were headed for the wilderness, where only God Himself could take care of them. He had to be their source there. So when they needed water, God gave it to them out of a rock. When they needed food, He sent manna. He saw to it that their clothes and shoes never wore out.
God did have a purpose for the wealth they received from the Egytians. He intended them to use it to build a tabernacle for Him. He wanted them to use it to establish His house (Exodus 25:8).
But initially the Israelites didn't understand that purpose. So you know what they did with their gold?
They turned it into an idol!
While Moses was on the mountain receiving the commandments of God, the Israelites took the jewelry the Egyptians had given them, melted it down, and made a golden calf to worship. That's so disgusting it makes me want to go slap a cow! They took the very stuff that came from God and made that stuff their God.
Guard Your Heart
Now can you see why God wants you to seek Him instead of seeking prosperity? Can you understand why He wants you to be addicted, not to getting things for yourself but to advancing the kingdom of God?
He doesn't want the increase He gives you to end up taking His place!
He doesn't want that car He gives you to mean more to you than He does. He doesn't want that promotion He provides to take you away from His house.
If we'll stick with God's plan and do things His way, however, He'll help us guard our hearts so that won't happen to us. And He'll do it by providing us with opportunities to give.
Position Yourself for Prosperity
That's what He did for the Israelites. After they destroyed the golden idol, He took them out farther into the wilderness and gave them the opportunity to fulfill the real purpose for which He had given them their wealth. He commanded them to bring offerings for the building of the tabernacle. They were so happy to do it that they gave… and gave… and gave until Moses had to tell them to stop!
Remember that next time somebody asks you to give to the work of God. Don't get mad and hold onto your wallet. God is just giving you an opportunity to put His kingdom first in your life. He's giving you the chance to position yourself for prosperity by putting your heart in the right place, for "…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21).
When people get mad because we talk about money in church, they're showing where their heart is. It's in their pocketbook. Their paycheck is closer to their heart than God is.
But God wants us to turn that around. He wants to be our treasure. That's why He commands us to give. It's not because He wants our money, it's because He wants our hearts!
A Sore Evil
When we refuse God's command and hold onto the money He has given us so we can spend it on ourselves, we put our hearts in the wrong place. We end up on the path to poverty instead of the path of prosperity. As Ecclesiastes 5:13 says, "There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt" (KJV).
When you keep your riches away from God, you end up hurting yourself more than anyone else. So don't let that happen to you. Determine to take advantage of every opportunity God sends you to give and increase His kingdom. The more you do that, the more you'll want to do it, and eventually, you'll end up with a full-blown addiction to the kingdom of God!
How will you know when you get there? You'll know when God takes hold of the whole of you and you're emotionally, psychologically, and physically wrapped up in Him. When you're addicted to God, nothing moves you on the inside like He does. Nothing thrills you like blessing Him and expanding His kingdom. It's all you live for.
When you hit that place, God will see to it that your every need is met. He'll see to it that everything you desire is added to you. You won't be worrying about money anymore. You won't be looking for it, either.
It will be looking for and finding—you!
